Mass Effect Vs Aliens 2: Valkyrie Rising
by jerseydanielgibson
Summary: Humanity's First Specter, 1LT Jane Shepard, has received a disturbing message from somewhere out in the Attican Traverse; a terra-fracking mining ship has found a strange device on a planet… and the ship has now gone silent from a strange biocontaminate. Can Agent Shepard and her team of humans and aliens discover the fate of the Ishimura without joining it? (F!ShepxVasir)
1. 1: Oops! I Did It Again!

**Preword: Oops! I Did It Again!**

You didn't think I'd end it like that, did you?

Originally, The Siege Of Hadley's Hope was just going to be _Aliens_ in a Mass Effect setting. Obviously… that didn't happen. I went off to NeverNeverLand on a rocket pack and kept running with the sucker. I pretty much just took a 12 gauge to everything you once knew.

When I started MEvA, it really was just going to be a rewrite of the _Aliens_ movie within the Mass Effect Universe. The James Cameron screenplay was extremely helpful with the settings and dialogue, and was used rather religiously up until the eighth or ninth chapter. After that… I just went off in my own direction, and took the story to places I hadn't planned, and enjoyed it immensely.

I had originally planned to make a sort of stand-alone sequel that would cover Mass Effect vs. Predator: The Thrill Of The Hunt, involving a Turian Blackwatch team and the Yautja Predator from the first movie Predator. Unfortunately, I couldn't see a way to make it other than a word-for-word copy of the movie involving a bunch of Turians and one lone Asari. I eventually nix'ed the idea because it seems a lot of effort for traveling down the same road. Instead, two of the surviving characters will be in this upcoming story, and it will be mentioned periodically. The survivors are both Specter recruits, one being an OC from my Mass Effect: Battle Series Asha T'vara, an Asari Commando Vanguard, and the other being Garrus Vakarian, a Turian Blackwatch Sniper/Infiltrator.

The sequel will involve everyone's favorite creepy-crawly, the Xenomorph. The setting? The USG _Ishimura_, a planet-fracking mining, surveying, geological research vessel working in the Attican Traverse.

Wai… wha… the _Ishimura_?

Calm yourself, dear Padewans; this is still Mass Effect vs. Aliens. With a healthy dose of EA's _Dead Space_. Severed limbs and all.

**So what do we know?**

The majority of the 343 Mobile Infantry and N7 Team Dingo is dead, leaving few survivors.

The SSV _Sulaco_ left LV 426 with ten facehugger eggs, while a mysterious Dreadnaught-sized ship went off with the contents of the derelict ship.

Shepard bypassed the Alliance and went straight to the Counsel with everything gleaned from LV 426. She has accepted becoming a Counsel Agent, and is now Humanity's First Specter.

Burke has turned traitor, taken by a Corporation of Capcom fame, spawning many video games and movies. You would need one of these on a rainy day.

**So what can you expect out of a sequel?**

No, Alien 3 will not be used. Nor Alien 4. You can breath easy.

More Crossovers! If you've never heard of the USG _Ishimira_… oh boy you're in for a treat. Only because I love Sci-Fi/Horror!

A more in-depth look at the Counsel, Specters, and Mass Effect technology. I like using hard science when possible.

Enough violence to sooth your savage souls. Because we love guns and poking dead things with a stick.

Now that we got that out of the way, let's get on with the show!

**Welcome to 2177**. Welcome to Mass Effect vs. Aliens 2: Valkyrie Rising


	2. 2: Three Months Later

Disclaimer: BioWare owns Mass Effect. 20th Century Fox owns the _Alien_ franchise.

**Widow System, February 19, 2177**

The rhythm of the heavy bag shaking with each strike was like music as the heavy chains jingled with every fist, elbow, knee, shin, and foot crashing into its burlap frame, swaying like a drunk on a bender as 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard (SAMC) struck the bag again and again in a fury of blows. The sweat that covered her skin was hot a slick, and the odor pungent as her fist collided with the bag once more, followed by a knee, an elbow, a shin strike, a hammer fist, and then a knife hand. Her strikes were quick and precise, tucked back to her body for defense and balance as another would follow, abusing the bag with her vengeance. Sweat dripped down her face and flew from her lips as she breathed hard, sucking air in as fast as she could as she continued to pummel the heavy bag, forcing herself to keep her rhythm up, to keep her strength eve, to make sure her wrists were straight and that her form was a perfect as possible as she continued the assault. The bag's metal chains cried out with its metallic song with each hammering force Shepard landed upon its defenseless form, the middle of it beaten in enough that many parts of it looked permanently dented in from the assault. _Just a little bit more, Janey_, Shepard told herself as she landed a double shin combo to the lower part of the bag, followed by a straight jab, and then an elbow. _Ignore how much it burns, how hard it is to breath, how sweaty and tired you are!_ Fist, fist, foot, knee, elbow, elbow. _Keep it up! An enemy doesn't give a shit how tired you are our how sluggish you feel!_ Shin, shin, elbow, elbow, fist, fist. The chain continuously rattled with each pounding the bag took, a mute victim to the Marine's wrath.

"Time!"

"HA!" Shepard finished it off with a spinning back kick, slugging the bag's middle with the pad of her foot, hard enough to almost bend it in half as the bag swayed backwards at a thirty degree angle, and like a kicked puppy, slunk back towards its hanging position, rocking back and forth like a pendulum. Shepard stood there panting, bringing her taped hands above her sweat-slicked red hair and placed them on top of her head, expanding the volume of her lungs so that she could drink in the oxygen quicker, while also getting herself a good whiff of sweaty human musk.

"Five minutes, Janey." Master Chief Stacy Valentino called out from the side of the small gym that they were in, filled with haptic devices meant for several species for working out any number of maneuvers or abilities, yet the heavy bag was the only real physical object around, and used exclusively by Shepard herself. No one else touched it; no one dared. "Good steady breaths, hun. Form's in top shape." Stacy tossed a sports bottle filled with a lemon-lime sports drink towards the Marine Lieutenant.

"Thanks, Auntie." Shepard replied, pulling at the nozzle on top and sucking down hydration and electrolytes, squirting it from the bottle and into her mouth like a garden hose. Despite her body's craving to replace its fluids, she swallowed slowly, to keep from upsetting her stomach or getting herself sick. The electrolytes would do their job, adding fluids and sodium that her muscles and blood craved, she just needed to take it easy so as to not put out-of-whack any other important bodily functions.

"Water break's over. Beat your face on that mat, El-Tee. Give me my hundred." Stacy was merciless as her voice growled, her Texas twang coming in hard as Shepard fell to the mat, catching it with her hands, and proceeded to do military-style push-ups. Doing a hundred push-ups was nothing to her; doing a hundred after she beat the shit out of a heavy bag for five minutes, on the other hand, was murder. She hadn't even gotten to ten before her arms and shoulders were begging her to give up, to flop on the gym mat and call it quits. At twenty, she could feel the tremors starting to twitch in her biceps, usually a clear indication that she was pushing it too far, perhaps, that that lying down might be in order. Getting to forty took time, and Shepard had to bend up at the waist to catch her breath, her whole body shaking from exertion and exhaustion. Only five second rests were allowed as she got back into the proper position, from her ankles to her shoulders making a flat plane, and she aimed for fifty.

"Hurry up, sweetheart! I ain't got all Goddamn day!" Stacy called out, her voice loud as the Master Chief began to catcall. "That fucking floor ain't going to push you up any Goddamn time soon, so you had best push it the fuck _down!_ I want my fucking hundred or I will have your ass!" Shepard kept pushing, sweat puddling underneath her on the floor as she broke fifty, her arms quaking as if they were wet noodles, her back shaking like a bridge without suspension, and her legs wobbling as if they were made of rubber. Fifty-one. Fifty-two. Rest. Fifty-three. Fifty-four. Rest. "Holy fucking shit, Janey, don't tell me you can't give me my hundred!" Stacy screamed as Shepard saw a pair of running shoes enter her field of vision. "I thought you were Goddamn System Alliance Marine, not some pole-dancing Colonial Air Force cocksucker who wouldn't know what to do with a fucking dick if it plunged itself into her mouth. _Give me my motherfucking push-ups!_"

_And this is why no one messes with Texas_… Shepard thought to herself as she lowered herself slowly, grunting as she went up. Sixty.

Her body failed her at sixty-four.

"Fuck!" Shepard cursed as she hit the floor, unable to hold herself up anymore, her entire body crying out in agony as she felt face-first into a puddle of her own cooling sweat, the sensation not at all pleasant. She rolled herself onto her back, breathing hard and fast as she tried to lift her arm to wipe the sweat off her eyes, but could barely do it due to the fact that her hand was shaking so bad. It felt like her arms were made out of jello and weighed down with lead, and moving them was like trying to control a arm that was half-asleep. Her Aunt Val crouched beside her, and pulled the towel that she had draped over her shoulder, wiping the sweat from Shepard's face gently.

"Sixty-four, kiddo. Two more than yesterday." Stacy smiled, her tone normal now that the exercise was over. "Your Crush was over about ten minutes ago. How about I take a spatula and peel you off that floor so you can hit the shower and quit smelling like a damn gym sock?"

"Can't you just bring the shower to me? Is that so much to ask for?" Shepard replied weakly, her laugh only half-hearted. "I don't think I could kill a cotton ball if I had to."

"That's why I'm here, Janey; pick you up and dust you off." The Master Chief explained as she scooped her hands under Shepard's shoulders. "Up we go, kiddo. I ain't picking your ass up myself. You aint' dead yet!"

"Sure?" Shepard struggled to get up, sitting up on her ass as she panted, and then somehow found the strength to get on her feet. The room spun slightly, but it wasn't too bad, just a little lightheaded from the two-hour training she endured everyday. "Shower does sound good right about now. Cold water shower."

"No cold water, you know that; system shock and hypothermia." Her Auntie reminded her, handing the sports bottle back to her, which Shepard took the nozzle into her mouth and sucked at it like a baby. "Finish that bottle first and you can sing in the shower for as long as you like. You still got that interview coming up here in a few hours."

"Fuck. Interview." She had forgotten. Stacy, bless her heart, was always there for her. "What was the name of that woman again?"

"Ann Coulter." The Master Chief reminded her. "Earth's way of saying 'fuck you' to their little rising star." Val patted her on the back hard, almost making Shepard stumble. "Of all the human beings in the Goddamn galaxy to interview your official introduction to being a Specter, and they had to get some right-wing racist bitch?"

"It's ICS, Auntie; same assholes that gave you _You Bet Your Life_ and _Climbing For Credits_." Shepard replied, sucking down more lemon-lime. "Right now, all I care about is peeling off these running shorts and this sports bra and blasting myself with water. If the Counsel calls, put them on hold." That had the Master Chief laughing as Shepard sauntered in the shower.

* * *

"C'mon, El-Tee, quit gettin' the jitters! _Maldecir!_" Corporal Jeanette Vasquez berated 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard as she stood behind a studio backdrop, letting Corporal Vasquez and Sergeant Rita Vrataski fuss with her as they went over every inch of her uniform with a critical eye. "Looking sharp, Jane. Real sharp."

"Dressed in my Dress Blues for an interview, whose idea was this anyways?" Shepard muttered as she lifted her chin up to adjust her collar. "Damn thing's tight on my neck."

"Probably because you've added about fifteen pound of meat in like two months, Jane." The Full Metal Bitch replied with a smile. "Don't tell me this was your original Dress Blues from when you were a freshman?"

"Um…" Shepard winced at that. Weighing in at seventy-two and a half kilos, she had enough lean muscle mass to make most guys pout at their own physiques. She had only weighed something like fifty-nine kilos when she started OCS. Had she gotten so much bulkier? "Can I plea the Fifth?" That had Rita snort as she stepped away, looking Shepard over from a little more distance.

"You look good, Shep. Look like you can break a bitch in half." The half-Japanese woman smiled as she placed a hand on her belly. "Little guy approves." She had just found out that the baby that was Tip Crowe's would be a boy last week, and Shepard had thrown a party for her. She'd have to remember to plan a baby shower, get the girls involved.

"Always good to have a male opinion of a woman in uniform." Shepard replied, making Vasquez snort. "Ripper and Newt here yet?"

"Just in." Ellen Ripley came in with Rebecca Jorden, the eight year old girl carrying a wooden box. "Security's thick out there, and Tela almost had to biotically push us through." Counsel Agent Tela Vasir appeared behind Shepard's grandmother and her eight year old aunt, looking a little frustrated.

"Did _every_ human on the Citadel show up today at the front door?" The Asari Specter lamented, obviously not pleased. She was wearing a normal everyday Asari-styled dress for the occasion as oppose to Huntress gear or her battle armor. "I was seriously thinking of singularity'ing the whole lot of them!"

"I'd pay to see that." Vasquez piped up, Vrataski nodding jubilantly.

"Lieutenant Shepard?" A human woman dressed in a blouse and slacks came back to where the five human women and Asari Specter stood. "We just went to a thirty second commercial break, and she'll introduce you in."

"Too late to run away?" Shepard asked, getting several shaking heads. "Damn. You got my medal, little sister?"

"Yes, Janey." Newt opened up the box and turned it to her, showing a golden disk shaped like a multi-pointed star, with Earth at the forefront set upon a deep blue ribbon. Shepard pulled it out and slipped the ribbon over her head and around her neck, setting the golden medallion just in between the lapels of her dress shirt. Vrataski and Vazquez, as if on cue, mockingly saluted her.

"Assholes." Shepard shook her head as she closed the box, taking a deep breath, feeling the weight of the medal on her neck; who the hell decided to make a large gold medallion? "Wish me luck?"

"We'll see you after the show." Ripley promised with a smile, pulling Newt along as Vrataski and Vasquez moved with her, leaving Tela Vasir alone with her.

"Nervous?" The Asari asked, her voice calm and reassured.

"Very." Shepard admitted a little awkwardly, seeing the Asari frown a little. "Woman's a bitch known for sensationalism and blurting out stupid shit. I just don't want to say something wrong."

"You'll do fine, Jane. I have faith in you." The Specter made to adjust Shepard's blue beret, and when she was satisfied that no one was looking, stole a light kiss from her. "That is for luck."

"Tease."

"_And we're back from our commercials…"_ Began the voice of a human woman from behind the curtain.

"That's my cue." Shepard told the Thessian, doing her best to give her a reassuring smile. "Here we go…"

* * *

Ann Coulter: And we're back from our commercials to give to you today a historic interview. From out of nowhere, this woman showed up on the galaxy's front doorstep and right into the spotlight, and needs little introduction from our viewers. I present to you today for her first interview, Star of Terra-winner 1st Lieutenant Jane Catherine Shepard.

_(Applause)_

Jane Shepard: Thank you, Ms. Coulter. It's good to be here.

AC: Now, let me get this straight. There's been a lot of rumors and speculations about you and your actions, Lieutenant, and a good many people would like to clear them up now that we have you here.

JS: Oh boy. Laughter

AC: How _did_ you come to get to be here, exactly? Details aren't very forthcoming… with the trial and the Alliance's rules about on-going investigations…

JS: Some of those I can answer. Simply, I was in command of a platoon of Alliance Marines that responded to an emergency request of a colony in Alliance Space. We were sent to investigate.

AC: And this is what is now known at the 'Broken Sword' incident?

JS: Correct, Ms. Coulter.

AC: To our viewers, the term 'Broken Sword' is a phrase used by the military to indicate the loss of a colony, due to enemy or unknown means. Now the Alliance won't say what happened, but there are a lot of people scared and want to know what happened to a colony that the Alliance won't even name for us. Was it slavers?

JS: That I can clear up, and it was most definitely not slavers, or any of the recognized species in Citadel Space, to include Batarians. The incident was caused by a semi-sapient organism that was found on the colony, which attacked the colony. When we arrived… they were all gone save one.

AC: The Sole Survivor. Reports indicate that you saved a child.

JS: We did. Due to Alliance Law, I can't identify the child until the nearest next-of-kin is located, but I can tell you that the child is in good health and in good spirits the last time we talked. It was… a terrible ordeal for someone so young to have gone through. I wish we could have gotten there sooner, but I'm glad someone was able to get out.

AC: In the Weyland-Yutani Trail, Director Jack Harper's defense lawyer claims that everything that happened on the colony was a fabrication by you, a cover-up for mistakes you made out on the colony. Any basis to this?

JS: Mr. Yokasiru missed his calling as a comedian. (_Break_) I probably should give you a real answer. There is more than enough photographic evidence and videographic evidence to disclaim Mr. Yokasiru's theory of a cover-up. Not to mention eyewitness testimony from not only my Marines, but the Sole Survivor as well.

AC: Yet Alliance investigators aren't allowed to inspect the site?

JS: The site isn't safe for investigation. Even drones can't go in.

AC: So… all we have is your word, your evidence, your testimony, and let me be clear, the testimony of everyone who was with you at the time. Crime scenes have investigators comb through them to see if eyewitness testimony is validated or not, yet it wasn't done for the colony.

JS: Good.

AC: Excuse me?

JS: We were dealing with a biological contaminate, a type of creature that managed to depopulate an entire colony of eight-hundred and fourteen people in the matter of days. I'd rather the site be unsafe for investigation than the possibility of it ever getting out. If you don't believe my testimony, that is your right, but believe me in that, you do not want to see those creatures. Ever.

AC: And that supports Mr. Yokasiru's claim that you bombarded the colony?

JS: Not true at all. Didn't have the capability. No Alliance support, no bombs, no kinetic strikes, no glassing. It's still there, I just made it lethal for anything to take a step on it.

AC: And you feel justified in wiping out a colony?

JS: It was already wiped out when I got there. I just kept others from going in and falling victim, or worse, spreading the creature. Imagine some innocent cargo ship picks something up and brings something back to, say, Elysium or Hera? As much as it was a tragedy that we lost a colony, we were very lucky that all it was was one colony away from normal trafficking lanes.

AC: So… you do feel justified in wiping out a colony?

JS: Alliance backed up my decision. So did the Counsel.

AC: The Counsel… you've become very involved with the Counsel since the 'Broken Sword' incident. Rumors suggest that you've gone to bed with them.

JS: I hope you mean that figuratively. (_AC clears throat nervously_) If what you mean is have I been working alongside the Counsel, the answer is no, I have not.

AC: But eyewitnesses say…

JS: I've been working with the Office of Special Tactics and Reconnaissance.

(_Pause_)

AC: You've been working with Specters?

JS: Yes.

(_Pause_)

AC: They… allowed this?

JS: They recommended it. They were impressed with what I did. They wanted to see what else I could do.

AC: Wanted to see what else… you mean…

JS: Yes.

AC: You?

JS: Yes.

AC: But… they're…

JS: Aliens? Forest for the tress, Ms. Coulter. If you actually just meet one of them and talk to them for a little bit, you start finding the similarities instead of noticing the differences.

AC: But let me get this straight. You work for the Office of Special Tactics.

JS: Yes.

AC: Doesn't that make you… (_pause_) a Specter?

JS: It does.

(_Pause_)

AC: I don't believe you.

(_JS brings up red Omitool, displays Specter badge_)

JS: Anything else you like to clear up?

AC: Um. We'll be back after these messages.

* * *

Ann Coulter: And we're back with Star of Terra Winner 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard in her first interview. Now to recap what we just learned… you are a Specter? An official Specter?

Jane Shepard: Officially, I am a Specter recruit.

AC: What does that mean?

JS: I do most everything a regular Specter does except I'm taking training and classes like any other Specter recruit to enhance my capabilities and learn the nuances of Citadel law, as well as those of the other Counsel species. Despite popular belief, we don't just run around and shoot at things like a Blasto movie.

AC: But… I thought only Counsel member species could have Specters.

JS: (_snort_) Yeah, tell that to the Elcor I sit next to. Just about every race has got a Specter in it as far as I'm aware. The Counsel judges you on your personal achievements and capabilities, not on what race you happen to be. In Special Tactics, they don't care about your race or what you look like, they only care if you can get what needs to be done accomplished.

AC: Any special considerations considering since… well… you're Humanity's First Specter?

JS: Yeah, all eyes on me. Everyone seems to be checking up on me, seeing how I measure out. It's not easy; all Asari are biotics, all Turians are naturally a hell of a lot faster runners, Salarians got me beat on the IQ scale by about… fifty points or so. So half of what I do is baseline for whoever is the next human up, and the other half is to see what I'm capable of. No pressure.

AC: What about the other rumors we've all been hearing about.

JS: I think I know where this is going…

AC: You've been seen in the company of an Asari.

JS: Yes, that is my mentor.

AC: Some of the eyewitnesses state that she was wearing a dress. As were you.

JS: Showing up to a restaurant in battle armor usually spooks the customers. And Asari normally wear dress attire. And there's not a lot of selection of human clothing on the Citadel, unfortunately. So I'm generally stuck with Asari clothing, too.

AC: How's that working out?

JS: Asari are petite and definitely a lot less muscled than I am. I ripped a few flexing by accident!

AC: So… you're not an alien lover?

(_Pause_)

JS: You might want to repeat that question differently.

(_Pause_)

AC: Well, our viewers are concerned that you might have forgotten what race you belong to.

(_Pause_)

JS: Let's be honest here… it's _you_ who is doing the wondering. Or shall I quote some of your earlier commentary from just a few days ago when you spotlighted this interview?

AC: I am only serving…

JS: Quote; "Jane Shepard seems to bleed blue the way she schmoozes with this unknown Asari Maiden, letting her be taking out for dinner like some cheap date." End quote.

AC: Now that's taken out of context…

JS: The context was the other commentator asking you what you thought of me. And the Asari is a Matriarch, which you can easily tell by her facial markings if you actually did some investigative reporting instead of slander and lies. And that dinner you were referencing to wasn't cheap. I was going to go Dutch until I saw the price. Or do you need some more context?

AC: Look here, the people have the right to know…

JS: That's rich coming from your network.

AC: How _dare_ you accuse me of…

JS: Should I bring up more context items of you, Ms. Coulter? I tell you what race I belong to. The same race that, when Turians darkened Shanxi's skies and brave men and women fought a bitter ground war, the first thing that Corporate did was jump into Alliance Military ships and abandoned Earth in the opposite direction? Same race that left Mindoir to rot while slavers picked her clean just to teach the Independents a lesson? Same race that serves its wealthy in high-class restaurants while the rest stick on food coupons at the meager hopes they'll be able to feed their family for the month? Last time I checked when I was wounded in combat, my blood came out red. What color is yours? Green? Black?

(_Pause_)

JS: Let me tell you something else. I'm also a part of the same race that, when a Turian Dreadnaught lined a kinetic strike on the main colony of Shanxi, one fighter pilot in a badly damaged vessel crashed his fighter into the Dreadnaught's engines, crippling it and taking its main battery offline at the cost of his life. That was 1st Lieutenant John Shepard, my father. Same race of a woman whose callsign, 'Ripper', was synonymous with 'death' in the Turian Military lingo she took out so many of their fighters and frigates. That was 1st Lieutenant Amanda Shepard, my mother. Same race that with his best friend and his wife dead, adopted their orphaned daughter to raise as his own in honor of his friends. That's Captain David Anderson, my adoptive father. Forgot my race, Ms. Coulter? I stand at the very center of galactic civilization representing my race. Where the hell are you?

(_JS gets up, leaves_)

AC: Well, (_clears throat_) I'm afraid that's all the time we're going to have with 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard, Star of Terra Winner and supposed Counsel Specter.

* * *

"That two-timing, Godsdamn _whore_." 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard fumed as she let the recording studio, Ellen Ripley and Tela Vasir walking by her side as she walked through a door and into a service corridor that went behind the sound stage of ICS's Citadel Detachment, leading them towards the back exit of the building. "I _knew_ she was going to do that. Gods _damn_ her."

"Jane, relax." Ripley said softly, placing a gentle hand on Shepard's shoulder, getting her to stop as she looked at her grandmother. "That woman wanted you to put your foot in your mouth… and you didn't. You told her off on her own show, and made her look like a fool. You did good, kiddo." Shepard sighed as she slowly nodded, getting a hold of her temper, closing her eyes and taking several deep breaths. "Jane, I want you to know that I'm proud of you. When your mother was born? I wanted the very best for her. Hearing from you how she did well for herself, found a man she fell in love with, had a daughter of her own? It helps fight the pain of what I missed out on. Yet seeing you now, walking tall among those who are seen with respect and authority, I am simply amazed that someone of my flesh and blood could have come so far."

"I had help." Shepard smiled, looking to her grandmother. "Support. Back-up. Someone with a dropship and a itchy trigger-finger."

"I played my part, but it's you that we all follow, Jane." Ripley told her, putting both hands on her shoulders, facing her square on, her tone serious and her brown eyes staring into Jane's own green ones. "You've got two elite N7 Special Forces soldiers who follow you now, as well as the rest of your Marines. They follow because they believe, and you are the epitome of that belief. With the trial and all that's been going on, humanity is slowly getting behind you; they want someone they can believe in, someone who fights for her beliefs. Keep walking the true path with your head held high, Janey, and you will never have a shortage of friends and support."

"No shortage of assassination attempts, either." Shepard grumbled, thinking of the last attempt over a week ago, two dozen mercenaries that hadn't gotten past C-Sec. "Perhaps I can win through logistics; someone's bound to go broke trying to kill me."

"Ha! They only assassinate the rotten or the righteous, and you're not rotten." Ripley smiled. "As much as I'd like to hunt them down for trying to kill you, they're doing it because you scare them. As long as they want you dead, Jane, you're doing something right."

"Still wish they would throw in the towel. I'm tired of having your lives in needless danger." Shepard looked down at her feet, staring at her dress shoes, thinking of one of the attempts just in the past month, where it had been an improvised explosive device in an aircar sent to fly into her escort. Three Turian C-Sec Agents had been wounded in the attempt. "Gods, if I had known this would be how it was…"

"…You still would have done it." Ripley finished her sentence, and correctly at that. "Don't let them destroy you on the inside, too. You can kill a man without ever having to fire a bullet. Don't give them the satisfaction. Just keep walking that road, Jane, and we'll keep you straight and true." Her grandmother smiled at her, and Shepard knew that she was correct. Still, it felt good to have that support, to have that reminder. "Now, I do believe that you and your 'mentor' have some time allotted together. I would suggest getting out of those Dress Blues, you do stand out."

"Oh, I'm sure I can find a way to get her to change out of that uniform." Tela spoke up with a smile, making Shepard glare at the Asari.

* * *

The safe house; both boon and bane, domicile and prison, sanctuary and security station, it had become the residence of the remaining members of those who had escaped LV 426. It was a necessity, sadly, as after several attempts on their lives had proven that every member of the 343 Mobile Infantry and Captain Royce Mason's Team Dingo were in danger. Thankfully, the safe house had proven effective, as not one intruder, infiltrator, assassin, or saboteur had made their way onto the ship that was used as their refuge from the threat. The ship, a modified cargo transporter that was attached to the Citadel's Defense Fleet that patrolled the Citadel itself, was a ship that had been used as such in the past many times, controlled by the Office of Special Tactics and guarded jealously by Citadel Security's Special Services Section, sometimes known as the Deatheaters. Since it was attached to the squadron that defended the very Citadel itself, vessel transportation was regulated by none other than the flagship Destiny Ascension, surrounded by Carriers, Destroyers, Frigates, attack vessels, and recon vessels. Several ships of the same make and model of cargo transporter flew in tandem with the Fleet, and it even served as a supplier to the various vessels that made up the CDF. If anyone wanted to fire upon the Asari cargo vessel known as the ARV _Tor'jalai_, they would have to go through about fifty of the most lethal vessels that made up the most powerful fleet in the galaxy.

And it was where 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard called home.

Born on a ship, raised on ships, and having lived on ships for the vast majority of her life, living on a vessel was nothing new for Shepard. In fact, most of her crew, dubbed 'the Xeno Squad' by their personal security detail, had been living on vessels of one form or another at some point of time in their life, and the accommodations were much nicer than human standard. The Asari vessel was, simply put, a marvel. Thessians were more like to make objects smooth and curved, as oppose to the sharp angles of metal that humans made their ships into on the interior, and the _Tor'jalai_ offered an aesthetic appeal to it that many of the humans found enjoyable, or at least tolerable. Each member had their own personal room save Newt, who shared with Ripley, sequestered in a wing deep inside the cargo vessel, controlled by C-Sec's SSS.

Shepard walked into her personal dorm, tossing her Class Blues garment bag onto her bed, feeling the need for a drink. Sitting down at her personal work station situated at a table by her Asari-made bed, she reached into the small refrigerated unit underneath to pull out a bottle of Ireland's Finest, twisting off the top and taking a sip of the stout beet as she waved her hand over her work station, turning on the haptic monitor and its VIOS. Her SpecterNet access came up, and she was bombarded with messages on her personal mail account, mostly from other Specters and recruits. They had, of course, all watched her interview, and were messaging her their thoughts and attitudes towards it. Just by looking at the subject lines, Shepard could see that most were encouraging her and giving her support. One video file had Ann Coulter's words splice together to where she sounded even more idiotic, if possible, and Shepard reminded herself to let the Hanar Specter recruit Maxis know how funny she found it to be.

There was a knock on her door.

"Enter!" Shepard called out, her door sliding open to admit Counsel Agent Tela Vasir, the Specter wearing what was considered 'normal' garb for her people; a loose-fitting dress that was thankfully without revealing portions. "Looks like I got fan mail. Can't wait to see what the talk shows think of me."

"Your species does love to sensationalize things." Tela replied, sitting on her bed casually. "You should fret less about such things, Jane. There are more important things than the opinions of others."

"Yeah…" Shepard replied uncomfortably, the same conversation they've had before rearing up. "You know what really bothers me, Tela. It's not the talk show hosts or the media puppets. It's my people; I don't want to be stabbed in the back by a bunch of Corporate lowlives wanting a better rating and having so many human looking at me in a negative light. I did this so I could represent humanity and defend it, not to watch Earth take three steps back every time I struggle to take a step forward."

"I know, and I understand, _dhan'rana_." The Thessian responded quietly, using the Asari word for 'one I care for'. Ever since Shepard got herself immersed into the galactic stage by walking into the Counsel of Three's chambers right after LV 426, she had become painfully aware of how humanity showed itself to the galaxy at large. Though most extrasolar species didn't watch any human-related media programing, some of the other news sites and media commentators would rehash what was being put out by ICS, Alliance News Network, ICS, and Westerlund News as they did with the other species. Shepard, of course, had made a splash on a good many of the major networks, the Marine having access to most of them through her personal entertainment monitor in her room. The Weyland-Yutani Trial was closely watched on by all as the Citadel Courts tried the fifty-two instigators that were involved in the events that occurred on LV 426, being judged by a human judge for fairness purposes, but monitored by a panel of three Counsel-appointed Citadel Justices to make sure that _human_ law was being followed to the letter. The Trial was quickly turned into a media circus, and Shepard could hardly watch anything without seeing her face plaster on the news, added with commentary, wild guesses and speculation, and straight out slander.

The most common word she heard was 'traitor'.

Tela Vasir moved behind Shepard, and her blue hands gently went onto Shepard's shoulders, softly rubbing them through her Alliance Blues, massaging the muscles underneath. Shepard forced herself to close her eyes and relax, to do her best to turn off her thoughts and just relax, enjoying the feel of her muscles being rubbed and massaged. Of course, her brain never did seem to want to cooperate as she thought of the Thessian that was in the room with her, along with a quiet moment. Slowly, Shepard spun her seat to where she was facing Tela, looking up at the Asari's face, feeling her nervousness rising.

"I… I'd like to try again." Shepard forced through uncooperative lips, slowly standing from her seat as she slipped her arms around the Specter gently, looking at Tela's violet-blue eyes. She could feel the nervousness and the butterflies in her belly picking up as Shepard slid closer to the Counsel Agent, their bodies pressing together as she closed her eyes, letting Tela take the lead.

Shepard felt soft, full lips pressing to her own gently as human and Asari began to kiss.

It began as it always did, a nervousness that began inside Shepard's mind as biology and chemistry tried to mixed, finding faults. Shepard's hands glided along Tela Vasir's back, bringing her closer while finding the subtle curves and shapes that marked her as alien, different. While Thessians and human women may have been shape incredibly alike, there were differences, and it was these differences that played against Shepard in her mind as she tried to lose herself in the moment. The feel of skin that wasn't flesh, but a soft reminder of snake-skin. The feel of a tongue that was both smoother and shaped just different enough from a humans' to be noticeable. The scent of the Asari herself, unlike any natural odor that a human might be. All these and more assailed Shepard as she kissed Tela, pressing their bodies closer, wishing to give in to what her heart wanted but everything else seemed to struggle against. The kiss evolved into another as Tela's hands ran along the curve of Shepard's spine, pulling the Marine in closer as they went into their third and fourth kiss. Shepard still had her eyes closed, trying to lose herself in the pleasantness of sensations and ignore the differences that kept blaring at her. It started with her breathing, short, spastic bursts of panic and nervousness that lead to her hands clutching at Tela, not out of passion, but out of resistance. Things rolled downhill quickly after that as her body would begin to tremble, her skin would start to sweat, and her adrenaline would kick in, making Shepard increasingly agitated and aggressive until she couldn't take it anymore. Finally, Shepard had to push Tela away a step, panting as her heart raced and the sound of her breathing pounded away at her ears, trying to force herself to slow her breaths, to regulate her own body as her own body gave into what was known as Biological Terror Syndrome; her very DNA resisting against the idea of being with something not of Earth.

"Shit! Sorry!" Shepard gasped out, feeling absolutely terrible as she shoved Tela Vasir back a step, her limbs shaking and her skin tingling as she looked to the Asari standing in front of her, who looked at her with sympathy. "I… I think that lasted longer this time?"

"It did." The Counsel Agent replied softly, caressing one of Shepard's cheeks with a gentle hand, the fine scaled skin warm on her flesh. "Perhaps we should try your idea tonight when I sleep with you."

"Sleep _next_ to me." Shepard corrected the Specter with a slight smile, feeling hear heart beat slowly return to normal. "Fool my brain into getting use to you while it's defenseless. I honestly think it might be scent; we humans aren't known for our olfactory sense, but it's the only thing in my mind that seems to add up." She shrugged, looking into Tela's blue-violet eyes. "There's… a way we can get around that. Back in the old days, when horses were still around, people would take a shirt or a blanket that they used and rub it on the horse's skin, so the horse would get use to the smell of its rider. Maybe we can try something like that; either get me used to smelling Asari all the time, or mask you with a human's scent?"

"Why, you are an eager little Maiden, aren't you?" Tela replied with a mischievous grin, making Shepard groan. "It's an interesting thought, though, with the scent theory of yours. Perhaps…" The Asari went over to a small hamper of dirty laundry that Shepard had tossed her clothing in, and found a human-styled shirt that depicted her favorite ECUU team, the Edmonton Blood Dragons. Tela pulled it out of the hamper, making Shepard squawk at the actions as the Matriarch slid the shirt onto her upper torso over her dress. She turned to face Shepard, and gave off a little pose to show off. "This fits me pretty good. The fabric is an interesting feel, too. Care to test your theory, Jane?"

"Yes." Shepard replied a little guiltily, making Tela chuckle, smiling at at her as she stepped towards Shepard, gently pushing her back towards the bed. She gasped a little as the Thessian gently brought her down onto the bed, laying on top of her as Shepard found herself being kissed passionately, the Asari's body pressing into her own. Shepard felt a moan growing in her throat as she held onto the Specter that was on top of her, a chilling thrill tingling through her skin as her body and mind slipped into the moment, forgetting all else save for the full lips that pressed into her own and the body that began to move along hers, sending burgeoning waves of passion through her, fueling her own desires. She clutched at Tela, slowly opening herself to the alien woman that pressed herself into her, slipping her thighs slowly around the Thessian's tapered waist, moans of desire escaping her.

_Oh Gods, I didn't imagine it would feel this good!_ Shepard thought as she slipped her hand just underneath the Asari's crest, rubbing the folds at Tela's neck softly, knowing it to be a point of pleasure for the Thessian. Tela responded by moving in a manner that had Shepard's body reacting accordingly, all her thoughts driven away as want quickly turned to need, desire being seized by lust. She lost herself into the feelings and the actions, her body beginning to gyrate into the Specters', primal needs taking charge. Tela spoke her name softly, and Shepard slowly opened her eyes, seeing the Thessians' face above her own, her violet-blue eyes now ebony black. The unspoken question hung between them like a wall; _ready?_ Shepard shivered slightly at the though of a mindmeld, where the Thessians' more highly-evolved nervous system would align itself with hers for the very first time. They had never reached the point before, and Shepard had to admit, the though kind of scared her. Yet she had reached the point she had been hoping for, where she betrayed herself to her own biological needs and carnal desires to suppress her fears and worries, to force herself to make the 'bad' decision. They hadn't been able to do it before whenever they kissed and snuggled, her Biological Terror Syndrome kicking in and ruining it. Now?

"I'm ready, Tela." Shepard said breathlessly, looking into Tela's now-black eyes, her hands pulling the Asari closer. "Make me yours."

And together, they embraced each other and eternity.

* * *

A/N: For any of you with prior military experience, I'm sure we all remember how tenderhearted drills could be. As a former NCO myself, I had a wide vocabulary of insults at the ready whenever I got my men sweaty for their stupidity. The 'pole-dancing Air Force…' comment was actually one of my own personal favorites. If you do happen to be in the position of a non-Commissioned Officer, and you like what you read, try it out. It's always good for a laugh.

ICS, of Running Man fame, was never defined in the movie, but will stand for Intellivision Corporate Systems for the purpose of this story.

No shower scene. Pervert.

72.5 kilos = 160 lbs. 59 kilos = 130 lbs.

The interview was one that I had gotten as idea from LogicalPremise's wonderful Mass Effect AU 'Of Sheep And Battle Chicken' and 'And There There Were None'. Ann Coulter was slightly based off the real-life woman of the same name.

Don't worry. I'm not writing Fifty Shades of Blue.

I wanted to highlight in this chapter something always seemed obvious to me; how would a human be compatible to someone who is not? Seriously, with the exception of some people who are into some rather disturbing practices involving animals, it just doesn't seem possible for a human and an extraterrestrial to be co-aligned in the process of mating. Thus, Biological Terror Syndrome, an ancient defense against perversion of species. I made it linked to scent (the olfactory sense) as pheromones and natural odors are still used by us in an unconscious manner. Since Tela didn't 'smell' human, Shepard's body biologically wants to jump ship. Sorry, Captain Kirk, but banging away at alien girls just can't be that easy.


	3. 3: Of Old Friends And Old Enemies

Disclaimer: BioWare owns Mass Effect. 20th Century Fox owns the _Alien_ franchise.

**Widow System, February 19, 2177**

1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard walked into the communal dining room in the 'human wing' of the ARV _Tor'jalai_, finding Ellen Ripley, Rebecca Jorden, Sergeant Dwayne Hicks, Corporal Jeanette Vasquez, Corporal-Technician Bill Hudson, Sergeant Rita Vrataski, Master Chief Stacy Valentino, and Captain Royce Mason already in the dining room, eating breakfast. It was Hudson's day to cook, so toast, bacon, and cheesy scrambled eggs were placed on the table for selection, with Elcor coffee and human-made sports drinks were available. Shepard padded into the room wearing only a plain t-shirt and some gym shorts, complete with a pair of slippers, heading straight for the coffee pot. She grabbed one of the taller available mugs, her name written onto with 90-mph tape and a marker, pouring the Elcor-grown brew into the mug and enjoying the scent of the coffee before taking her first sip.

"Gods, that hit the spot." Shepard breathed out, enjoying the taste of the coffee. So much better than the Navy stuff. She turned to the table, seeing the room's entertainment monitor turned onto Alliance News Network, showing Headline News, the volume lowered so conversations could take place without having to talk over the show's hosts. It seemed that the woman commentating, Patricia Hurst, was speaking on some policy dispute between Earth and some of the fringe colonies. Nationalist hold-overs, no doubt, Shepard thought to herself as she went to the table and began to put food on a plate for her to eat.

"Saw the interview, Janey." Royce called out from around a mouthful of buttered toast, his tone jovial. "Tore that sheila's 'ead right off on live video. Very nice."

"Yeah, her last reaction when you left was _priceless_." Hudson agreed, chuckling, fingering the scar that wrapped around the left side of his skull from brow to the back of his head, just above his ear, as he was wont to do. A reminded of the assassination attempt on all their lives at the Hesperiidae Hotel. Hudson had been extremely lucky that, despite velocities and physics, the mass effect-accelerated round had glanced his skull and traced along it instead of piercing it as it should have. "Showed her up _good_."

"I aim to try." Shepard replied with a smile, taking a fork and began assaulting her cheesy scrambled eggs. "Wanted to take her head right off in front of the Gods and everyone. Call _me_ a traitor? Should have bent her over my knee and spanked her. That would shut her the hell up." Hudson laughed at that, while Hicks merely chuckled. "They plaster the interview all over the news yet?"

"Along with reactions, commentary, and the opinions of others." Vrataski piped up, demolishing her bacon. "You hear the phrase 'Humanity's First Specter' about every two minutes. Most seemed pretty impressed by you. Then there's the usual yokels and hard-liners about a 'woman in a man's job' or 'tax dollars working for the aliens'. Really haven't heard anyone bashing you. Yet." Shepard _hmmm'ed_ that, knowing that Rita had a point; once the sensation of a human Specter wore off, she would be scrutinized and berated like any other celebrity. Just what she needed; some worthless talking head shooting their mouth off on matters they had no idea or knowledge about, paid to make ratings. Shepard had to resign herself to the fact that, even as she thought about it, there was undoubtedly 'nude' photos of her circulating the extranet, her face pasted upon some models'. It was only a matter of time, really. The dining room door opened and Counsel Agent Tela Vasir walked in wearing Huntress leathers, dropping in as she normally did in the morning. Usually, thought, it was after breakfast, and Royce noticed.

"Yer here earlier than usual, Specter." The N7 commented, still eating. "We got enough to eat if you skipped out on breakfast."

"I shall try some of your human breakfast." The Thessian announced, taking a seat across from Shepard, placing a plate in front of her and putting the same items that Shepard had onto it, sniffing each experimentally. Her nose wrinkled at the bacon, but the cheesy eggs she seemed to enjoy as her first taste of it quickly had her eating all of her portion quickly, and going for seconds. "This is good. What is this?"

"Cheesy scrambled eggs." Shepard explained, Tela knowing about cheese and eggs from her time with the human team. "High in cholesterol and calories, everything a growing girl needs."

"And growing boys." Vrataski pointed out, patting her own barely-thickened waistline. "Not that you'll have anything to worry about, Janey." That had Shepard blushing furiously as everyone else at the table chuckled save for Newt, who didn't get the reference towards motherhood. Even Tela saw hiding a smile.

"Hardy-har-har. Oh! Trial's on!" Shepard looked to the entertainment monitor, seeing the program shift to an update to the Weyland-Yutani Trial. "Turn it up!" The volume went up as the survivors of LV 426 faced the monitor that showed the updates of what was dubbed 'the Trial of the Century'.

"_Good morning, Alliance. I'm Sarah Powers and I'll bring you up-to-speed on the Trial of Chief Information Officer Jack Harper of Weyland-Yutani Corporation." _A twenty-something blonde woman in a profession red dress spoke on camera. Two picture-in-picture frames were on one side of the monitor, one showing an older man with steel grey hair, captioned as Court Prosecutor Michael Giamanti. Below him was an Oriental-looking man by the name of Tadashi Yokasiru, Defense Attorney for Jack Harper. _"With me today is Prosecutor Giamanti and Defense Attorney Yokasiru, commenting on the finish of the closing arguments of the Trial of Mr. Harper. Mr. Giamanti, any thoughts?"_

"_Of course, Ms. Powers._" The older man, a prosecutor who served in the Corporate Courts with an impressive win record, responded. _"With the evidence, eyewitness testimony, and cooperation of 1__st__ Lieutenant Shepard and her men, we of the prosecution were able to establish a very comprehensive timeline pertaining to Weyland-Yutani's role during the 'Broken Sword' incident, as well as Director Harpers' own personal knowledge and involvement. Thanks to the efforts of Lieutenant Shepard and her team, we of the prosecution had no problems finding the necessary evidence we needed to not only ascertain the level of Director's involvement relating to the incident, but the deep level of his guilt as well. What she, her Marines, and the colonists suffered was horrendous, and it is my job to see that justice is served, and that their involvement was not in vain. I personally promised the Lieutenant and her team that I would nail Jack Harper to the full extent of Alliance Law, and I hate breaking my promises."_ Hudson whooped as Shepard felt herself smiling. She had like Prosecutor Giamanti when she had met him almost two month before. And he had made that promise.

"_Mr. Yokasiru_, _anything to add?"_ Sarah Powers asked.

"_The whole trial, as I've stated, is a farce."_ The Defense Attorney began, getting a few boos from the table. _"The whole incident was a cooked-up scheme masterminded by Lieutenant Shepard, obviously to cover up either her ineptness or crimes she herself had committed on the colony. The evidence she presented could not be verified, nor could the colony be investigate to ascertain if her involvement did not cause the deaths of those colonists through her actions. The woman has publicly admitted to having turned the colony into a wasteland in which no one or any object can enter without perishing; who is to say the colonists were, in fact, dead _before_ it happen, that we are not just trusting the word of a mass murdering Marine who so cleverly covered her tracks?_"

"Can you believe the gall of this guy?" Hicks shook his head, bewildered. "Them's fightin' words if I ever heard any."

"Fucking _pendejo_." Vasquez shook her head, the anger in her tone obvious.

"_What appalls me, Ms. Shields,"_ Mr. Yokasirucontinued_, "is that instead of a true call to justice, that everyone seems to laud Lieutenant Shepard for her recklessness and incompetence. The woman has the Counsel practically eating out of the palm in her hand, forcing this unjust trial to occur, which I have repeatedly called for in suspension due to unjustifiable outside influence, completely negating my client's rights to a fair trial!"_

"Where was my family's rights in your client's defense, jerk?" Newt called out, getting another whoop from Hudson, the squad's technician offering a high-five to the eight year old girl, who immediately took up the offer.

"I really hope that scumbag charges a shitload by the hour." Shepard commented, taking another sip of her coffee. "Drain Harper's accounts dry. Leave him convicted _and_ broke."

"_Mr. Giamanti, you've of course have heard of Lieutenant Shepard's supposed recent promotion to the position of Counsel Agent."_ Ms. Powers continued. _"Any thoughts on Humanity's First Specter?"_

"_Good for her."_ The Prosecutor smiled. _"_Agent_ Shepard," _the man emphasized,_ "is the type of woman who puts people first, cares for those under her command, and absolutely refuses to fail. She'd make a hell of a prosecuting trial lawyer, but I'd say she's found herself in a niche she excels in, and more power to her. Wherever you are, Specter Shepard, know that my boys and girls back in the office are cheering you on."_ That had Shepard smile; she _knew_ she liked the man.

"_Mr. Yokasiru_?" Time for the other shoe to drop, Shepard thought wiry as the Oriental man opened his mouth to spew hate and lies.

"_Preposterous. There is no way that woman is a Counsel Agent."_ The man scoffed, making Shepard shake her head. _"I'll believe it when I see it."_

"_But she public displayed the Specter's Badge live on camera._" Ms. Shields pointed out. _"From a red Omnitool, at that! Every report indicates that those are the hallmarks of high-level access of the Counsel SpecterNet, which is supposedly biometrically linked to a single individual. According to many who have tried, failed, and have been charged and prosecuted for it, it is impossible to fake. Not to mention that lying about being a Specter, and somehow faking what is thought impossible on live holovision seems like a terrible idea."_

"_As I said, I'll believe it when I see it."_ The Defense Attorney reiterated. _Can't win them all_, Shepard shook her head as she finished the last of her breakfast and coffee, slipping her plate into the dining room's available sink and washing it off with micro-jetstreams meant to maximize cleanliness while saving on water; always a valuable commodity in space.

"All right, boys and girls, get yourselves ready for school." Shepard called out, looking at the chronometer on her Omnitool, looking at the time. "Try not to have too much fun shooting and looting with C-Sec while I learn Citadel Law."

* * *

The shuttle ride from the ARV _Tor'jalai_ to the Presidium was thankfully a short one with little interference from C-Sec SSS, more interested in incoming vessels than outgoing, a Turian pilot in each of the three shuttles used to take the Xeno Squad to their respective destinations. For Ellen Ripley, it was C-Sec pilot school where she learned how to fly more modern ships, getting her flight status reinstated through the Counsel so that she could pilot whatever ship was needed for any kind of mission. For Rebecca Jorden, it was a classroom full of Turians where she learned basic education, one of three human children under the tutelage of a Turian female. For the N's, it was working with Special Services Section, learning how better to fight against other races, as well as integrating different tactics and weapons. For the 343 Marines, it was working with C-Sec's Civil Defense Forces, the Citadel's version of SWAT, learning more team tactics, as well as various weapons, capabilities, and tactics of other species.

For 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard herself, it was what she called Specter School

"You seem quiet." Counsel Agent Tela Vasir commented quietly next to her as they rode in the back seat of their aircar escort, piloted by the Turian C-Sec Special Services Section Agent Malio Vibicus. The forty minute flight from the _Tor'jalai_ to the Office of Special Tactics was perhaps the only true alone time that Shepard got to have with the Asari Specter, where no one else could interrupt them or walk into awkward situations. While there had been some speculations about her and Tela being together, Shepard hadn't told anyone on her team. She herself had struggled with the fact that she had gotten a crush on an alien, and a female one at that when she wasn't even attracted to human females. Yet it had happened, worming its way into her whenever she enjoyed just talking to the Thessian, or whenever they went out just to do something normal. Tela had been the first non-human Shepard had gotten any real experience with as an individual, and she had found the Asari to be smart, sassy, and enjoyable to be with. When Shepard had to admit it to herself that she might have had feelings for the Thessian, she told Tela in clipped, difficult words, having to struggle against something she had thought true her entire life; that aliens were meant to be feared and distrusted. Even now, she still had some issues with it, thought, thankfully, Tela Vasir was both accommodating and understanding. Better yet, Malio Vibicus, who exclusively drove for Humanity's First Specter, would simply put up the aircar partition between himself and the two Specters in the back and let them enjoy their privacy together.

"Still stewing about that defense attorney." Shepard admitted, shyly slipping her hand into Tela's, holding onto it gently. As always, she was reminded of the differences in their species just by touch alone, the Asari's snake-like skin warm in her grip. "Don't like being falsely accused of anything. Well… I liked the mastermind bit. Sounded pretty awesome." She smiled at that. "Of course, in the same breath, he called me an idiot, too. Can I be both a mastermind and a screw-up at the same time?"

"Sadly, I've actually seen it before." The Specter admitted with a smile, simply holding Shepard's hand. "Turian Separatists, as an organization, have brilliant logistics and maneuvers, but engage in terrorist acts that have seemingly little point other than to infuriate the Hierarchy and get innocent people killed." Shepard merely grunted at that, trying not to think of _alien_ terrorists when the Alliance was still dealing with the human variety with Nationalist uprisings and former Independent hold-outs. "About last night… do you feel comfortable talking about it?" Tela's voice was soft and understanding.

"Not so uncomfortable that I can't talk about it." Shepard replied, a little embarrassed, yet her hand remained in the Asari's. "It was… a very interesting experience. Not at all what I thought it was going to be. I thought that… you know…" Shepard trailed off, a little embarrassed. "… I thought it was going to be messier."

"Oh, how little you know." Tela smiled, a sweet smile that Shepard found herself always wishing more of. "That was just a simple mindmeld, Jane. I kept it simple and light because it was your first experience, and I didn't want to scare you with a full immersion. What you experienced is generally what we are taught as Maidens when we are taught how. I figured with…" the Asari squeezed Shepard's hand, "you having such little experience with other species, and having to work against all you've known, it would be best if we start with just a simple joining of our consciousness. There is more to it, trust me."

"It gets better?" That had Shepard's cheeks heating up. She had found it quite exciting herself, and she had found it quite similar to sex, though it some ways, it was somehow better. The Thessian laughed at Shepard's reaction.

"Baby steps, Janey. Don't be the kind of Maiden who jumps straight into the strip club right after finishing her studies." Shepard didn't know exactly what to say to that particular phrase. Still, she felt as comfortable and as relaxed as she had ever felt, and she wondered how things were going to go with them. With the human media in a storm with the Trial, and now her Specterhood, it would come out sooner or later. Shepard just hoped it didn't hurt things between them. "You're worrying again, Jane."

"I'm a woman, it's my job." Shepard pointed out, making the Thessian chuckle. "I've… been meaning to talk to you, Tela. About us." She got flustered once more, the conversation leaving her words clipped and half-meaning'ed. "I… don't know what to think of us together when I think of my friends. Are we dating? Are we… I guess I can't say girlfriends, but…" Shepard struggled with what she wanted to say, to say what she meant. "There's so much I don't know, Tela, and so much that I'm dealing with. I hate having to struggle with myself for it, but I fear what others might think or believe. Sometimes I'm afraid someone's going to find out and it's going to push me over the edge or I'm going to end up a nervous wreck. When you think of us, what do you think of? What do Asari think of this?"

"In Asari culture, I would say that we are _je'dai_; the beginnings of a bond." The Specter replied, looking to Shepard. "It is when two are discovering one another, finding out their similarities and differences, working towards the intent to build a foundation for oneness. Is that what you seek?"

"I just… I guess I just want you to know that when I am with you, I feel happy, comforted, and content." Shepard replied softly, looking into Tela's blue-violet eyes. "I guess we humans like to label things so we know where we stand, to give us an idea how to move forward. I… like the sound of _je'dai_. Sound better than 'fumbling'." She found herself looking out the aircar's window, seeing the Citadel passing by her view. "I guess I'm just afraid of asking the wrong things, or saying the wrong things. I know that Asari aren't like humans, and that the physical act of sex isn't the same between our species. I just wish I had… someone I could confide in, someone who would understand what I'm going through from my end." The Specter looked at Shepard thoughtfully for a long moment, obviously pondering her words.

"You know… I do believe I know what troubles you, Jane." Tela finally replied after a spell. "Is it true that humans will talk to one another about such things like relationships and issues, to bring such things to a social venue for advice?" To that, Shepard nodded. "Yet you have no one to do that with, as you know of no other human to have done so, and you do not have enough trust in another species that might have done so. I believe what you want is the reassurances that one can get from another's experiences, to know the things that an Asari would know, save you are worried that asking me might make things uncomfortable."

"That sounded a lot better than what was in my head, but yes." Shepard replied, feeling a little bit better. "It never really occurred to me that you might feel the same way as well. I mean, if I don't know the differences between a human relationship and an Asari relationship, how would you?"

"Yes, but I am also just over six hundred galactic years old, Jane; I can make do." The Specter smiled. "I will ask around to see if there is anyone that might know of somebody. Most likely, you might have to settle for, say, a Turian with an Asari mate, or perhaps a Quarian, as Quarians have a remarkable amount of similarities with humans." That surprised Shepard to hear; Quarians and humans were similar as well? "Jane? I would like for you to know that I, too, feel nervous around you." That surprised her, hearing the Asari admit as much. "When I was a Maiden, I never had anything thoughts of being bonded with another, my decision was… colored by my father's abandonment of me. I was never very good with relating with my own species to feel comfortable enough to let them in, and I was usually too intimidated by the differences in the other species as well. As time grew, it was more of a force of habit, as well as using the excuse of my work to justify never having a relationship of worth or substance. It never bothered me that, for decades on end, I was content not to share myself with another.

"And then I met you over a hologram." Tela smiled softly, aiming it towards Shepard.

"I admit that you intrigued me at first." The Counsel Agent continued, still holding Shepard's hand, her blue fingers lightly rubbing at the pads of Shepard's own fingers. "But when I discovered that you killed an Ardat-Yakshi on your, I was very impressed, as those creature are genetically evolved to seduce and kill Asari. That alone may have made you worthy to be looked into as a Specter in an Asari's mind, but then I began to look into your actions at that Hadley's Hope colony, and I knew that you were a blessing by the Goddess Herself; a warrior of both body and mind. The more time I spent with you, the more time I wanted to spend with you. I… I had never truly felt that way in another before." The Specter went quiet for a moment, looking out the aircar's side window thoughtfully before returning her gaze back to Shepard. "When I am with you, Jane, I feel… complete, whole. It is as if I were missing something this entire time, yet had no idea about it until the day I met you. And now your cheeks are reddening again."

"Because you're teasing me!" Shepard accused with a smile. "Flirt." That had the Thessian chuckle softly. Shepard saw that they were but moments away from their respective destinations; she to the Specter School, while Tela worked her desk at Specter Investigations Division. "Crap. We're here already?"

"Have a good day at school. Maiden." The Counsel Agent smirked, getting a growl in response from Humanity's First Specter.

* * *

"Good morning, class." Specter Instructor Cavius Raminion spoke as the thirteen Specter recruits took to their respective seats facing the Turian Instructor in the plain class room that 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard sat in, having long since grown use to the Asari-styled chair that she had to make do with with its strange padding meant for a Asari's subtly different physiology. The Class she took, Citadel Law, was one that she actually found herself enjoying, learning about what Specters were capable of doing, what they were allowed to do, and what governments would potentially do if one of them were to show up. Shepard had assumed that Specters were basically allowed to go anywhere and do anything, but had found that it simply wasn't the case. Perhaps for an Asari or Turian Specter, such things would go smoothly, but there were a good many in various positions in various governments who would try to interfere with a Counsel Investigation, either because they were involved, or didn't want Counsel involvement into something they saw as 'theirs'. Shepard could understand the feeling; if a Specter had showed up on one of the ships she had been living in with the Alliance, things would probably have ended badly. The class was to teach them how to get what they needed done without having to resort to violence or threats of repercussions. "Rahe'Tarram? Your report."

A Quarian female in full EnvioSuit stood from her chair, moving to the front of the class to address them. Rahe'Tarram nar Sofis was a Quarian Pilgrim who had, during her travels through the galaxy, gotten wind of slavers who would specifically abduct Quarian Pilgrims in the attempt to have them invent AI warframes. Rahe'Tarram, the daughter of two Quarian Migrant Fleet Marines, had let herself be captured to reach the slavers' base, feigning unconsciousness before being tossed into a cell. After taking down her Batarian captor, she had hacked his Omnitool and weapons, and had raised merry hell on the slavers by activating their own stations' defenses against them while launching a one-woman rescue mission to free her people. Shepard had a lot of respect for the Pilgrim, and found Rahe to be a friendly woman who was interested in guns and explosives. Most definitely the daughter of a Marine. Her suit was colored mostly a subtle yellow that Quarians found pleasing to their silvered eyes, cast with subtle tones of some lime-green and bright orange along the seams, lines, and connection points of her suit. The headscarf that she wore to cover the tubes leading to her helmet, called a _sha'hana_, was the same lime-green color with orange swirls and designs as her suit, her opaque mask a tinted orange. Shepard had tried to impress upon the girl a sense of better tactical coloring, as anyone with a working eyeball could see the Quarian a klick off without optics. Rahe had thoughtfully listened, and then pointed out that she was a Quarian; anyone would see her a klick away just because she was Quarian. Somehow, the two of them had become fast friends; Shepard had lived in ships the vast majority of her life, and Rahe's parents were Marines, and things just fell into place.

"My report will be on the various faction of Terminus Warlords and their more semi-permanent holdings in the Systems." The Quarian female began, her voice vocalizer flashing with her words. "I shall start with the Pirate Queen of Omega, Aria T'loak." Shepard listened with interest, writing down her notes with a stylus on a datapad as Rahe'Tarram spoke, describing the Asari woman who ruled Omega as well as large swaths of the Terminus Systems. The Quarian then went to describe the station known as Korrman, the Briar Nebula, and the Vegius Sector. Shepard found the information both informative and well-distributed, making it easy to follow. She had recorded it as well as filling in her thoughts on the information as Rahe'Tarram finished her report a half an hour later. The Quarian woman returned to her seat, Shepard giving her a smile and a nod as she did so.

"Very good, Rahe'Tarram." Instructor Raminion nodded his head, looking at the class of thirteen. "Recruits, as Specters, it is expected that you will deal in a wide variety of situations. Yet as individuals, each of you have talents and skills that set you upon a particular path, will define how you deal with things. It is my job to expand upon your other capabilities so that when a situation arrises, you know how to crack a door open or decode software as well as fire a gun and perform first aid. Rahe'Tarram is a good case in this; she infiltrated into an installation by means of a ploy, was able to hack personal systems as well as security systems, and took the fight to slaves by means of a shotgun. A wide variety of skills such as this is useful for a Specter; what would you do when you lack the necessary knowledge to perform a task? That question will go to Jane Shepard."

"Use whatever resource happens to be available." Shepard replied immediately. "I myself am not skilled at breaking into doors, so I would include a member who was to make up the difference. If that isn't possible, I would assume that if I am infiltrating a compound, then its security members would have access codes. I would 'persuade' them to give them up, or give them to me."

"Interesting. Plausible." The Turian instructor nodded. "How would you go about getting an enemy to give such information?"

"Break a finger." Shepard smiled. "Then take that broken finger and wiggle it around for a while until they're ready to give up everything. If it's a Turian, go for a mandible instead." That had Cavius Raminion's own mandibles flare out in shock. "Sorry, but your talons are too hard for us humans break. Your mandibles, on the other hand? Perfect."

"That's not something a Turian would do to another," the Instructor announced, wincing, "but that is the kind of thinking we do try to promote. What would make another give in to your demands. Threats of death might work, but sometimes you must carry them out, and the situation might dictate that stealth is the better option. Other times, bribery works just as well." Shepard hadn't thought of that, yet there were mercenaries who didn't do contracts, only hired for whatever immediate job they were on, and open for negotiation. It might be a strange sight to hire the same mercenaries that might have been hired to kill the Specter in question! "Each being has a weakness, something that will make them fold. For some, greed is a powerful motivator. For others, it is pain. For some, the intellect holds a higher regard. If you can find your enemy's weakness, you can control them. For instance, Jane Shepard, what would you say is my weakness?"

"Immediately? I'd go for the thermal regulators in your armor." She pointed out, having a few of the Turian recruits growl in dismay. "Palavenians need a higher temperature to be comfortable than the rest of us, so the first thing I would do is try to hack your suit's power supply and shut off your ability to stay warm. Your head won't be in the fight if your worried about freezing to death and your limbs start going numb. Might just make a Turian run." Shepard smiled at that, making one of the Salarian recruits snicker.

"Good. That is a good strategy." Instructor Raminion pointed out. "Defeating the enemy's want or ability to fight or continue fighting can be more effective than just killing or capturing. What Jane Shepard suggests is a psychological attack; to demoralize an enemy. If her strength isn't in stealth, she can change the environment to where a Turian guard will be less effective, increasing her chances in infiltration. Or in Rahe'Tarram's case, turing the anti-riot guns inside of a compound onto the very slavers who need them. It is thinking like this that can make an individual exceptionally dangerous. Charging into a situation blind and ignorant is always a good way to get yourselves killed. It is a rare day when a Specter isn't outnumbered, facing odds that would make most Krogan blanch. What we try to teach you is how to level a playing field, how to develop a plan that will make an enemy less effective, or yourself more effective. Anyone can pick up a gun and shoot it; knowing when to do so is what makes you better. Asha T'vara? Tomorrow will be your report day, and your report shall be on the the different types of biotic-suppressive weaponry and pharmaceuticals, and which ones are deemed the most effective. Class is dismissed. And Jane Shepard? The Executor would like to see you in his office as soon as you are able." That had Shepard stop in her tracks; the Executor of the Special Tactics wanted to see her? Her first thought was that it couldn't be about anything good. Rahe'Tarram looked over to her with her orange-tinted visor, cocking her head to one side, a Quarian gesture that meant _what is this?_ The rest of the class filed out, Naor the Bull next to last as the Elcor waited patiently for the smaller species to leave before he lumbered out, Shepard waiting for the Bull to leave before leaving herself. She needed a moment to calm herself, wondering what the Executor might want with her.

* * *

"Ah, Agent Shepard. Come in."

1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard found herself walking into a spartan office that was the Executor's of Special Tactics, a plain office that only contained a desk, a work station, a few chairs, and one monitor that was playing a new broadcast from the Hierarchy, the sound muted. The Turian that sat at the desk, old enough that his plates were starting to droop with age, was clicking away at his haptic keyboard with his talons, typing at a speed that Shepard marveled at; how did a creature with only three fingers per hand seem to be able to type as fast as a human could with their five fingers each?

"You wanted to see me, Executor Contenus?" Shepard asked, standing at parade rest in front of his desk, unsure what the protocol was when meeting the Head Specter-in-charge. She should have asked Instructor Raminion when she had the chance. She figured that a military stance would be sufficient enough for a militant race, so she stood there at parade rest.

"Please, have a seat. And call me Kryus." The old Turian replied, pointing to one of the available chairs. Shepard accepted the seat, sitting in front of the desk as the Executor began to type away again. "I call you in here because the STG has found an anomaly pertaining to a human vessel. Our reports indicate that this ship, a mining and surveying vessel, was in the middle of… planet-fracking?" Shepard grunted at that, knowing of it but not all the details. "It found something alien in origin and brought it on board. We scan for such things in the hopes of keeping Prothean technology away from the black markets."

"So you want me to investigate a possible Prothean find?" Shepard asked, curious. She really didn't know much in the way of Prothean technology save what she learned in her school lessons on-board Alliance Ships.

"Yes, but what truly caught our attention was the cut-off distress signal we received later, some several hours _after_ the object was brought on board." The Executor told her. "It seems that the ship is in a degenerating orbit to the remains of a rogue planet that was cracked open, with engine malfunctions and several other emergency situations. The STG recon vessel, unfortunately, does not have the capabilities to go in. You do."

"A human for a human problem." Shepard realized, watching the old Turian nod his head, and she began to realize something. "Is… is that why I am a Specter? For situations such as this?"

"Yes. Now don't get me wrong," Kryus Contenus held up his talons in a gesture to indicate to give him a moment to explain, "you are both talented and worthy of it. But we at Special Tactics like to have a member of a species help out its own species when they can; I wouldn't expect you to understand that myriad of differences in a Turian culture, so it is only fair that we have a human for such incidences when we need a human perspective for a human problem. Plus the Alliance would rather deal with a human than any other species, I would imagine."

"You're not wrong." Shepard admitted, not sure if she should feel disappointed or not. It did make sense, though. Why else would Rahe'Tarram be a Specter if not to aid her own people? "Planet-frackers are very large ships, Kryus; dreadnaught tonnage or greater. I'm not going to be able to do it myself, especially if the ship is in distress. Did they say what caused the malfunctions, or why the distress signal was sent?"

"I can do better." The Executor replied, playing the distress signal.

"_Mayday, mayday, mayday!"_ A man's voice called out, the panic in his voice obvious. Shepard could hear an emergency klaxon going off in the background _"This is Engineer Temple! We're under attack by some… I don't even know what the fuck they are! But they're capturing or killing everyone! If you can hear this… send _somebody!_ The _Ishimura's_ taken a lot of damage, and most of the systems are off-line! And if you do come? Bring lots of guns, 'cuz these things love to stick the the shadows and ambush you..."_ The transmission cut off, and Shepard frowned; that was it?

"Can you play it back one more time? I heard something in the background, sounded like a VI-voice announcing something between the klaxon." She asked the Executor, who nodded, playing the recording again. Shepard listened with her eyes closed, trying to focus on the synthetic female voice that was trying to announce something in between Temple's words and the wails of the klaxon buzzer. "I think we'll need someone to clear it up for us, if possible. But it sounded like the ship's VI was putting some section of the ship into quarantine from biological contamination. I think the Med Bay."

"Agent, I'm sending you in to investigate." The Executor of Special Tactics told Shepard, his tone authoritative. "Normally, we would send in someone who has experience with humans, but it's far easier just to send in the one human Specter we have as oppose to the Turian veteran of Shanxi." That had her snort. "I am going to allot you the normal needs for such a mission that a Specter would have; ship, crew, a pick of specialists that we normally have available throughout the Citadel in various positions, the run of the armory, and credits to make purchases that you would need. As this is your first mission for Special Tactics and you are still a recruit, I will assign to you a mentor who has done this sort of thing, to help you as needed and to give advice as warranted. You will take the lead on this, Jane; your mentor is there to back you up."

"Appreciated." Shepard replied, and she was appreciative. While she had been trained in logistics in OCS for the Alliance, she never needed to worry about such things as the needs of a ship, a Navy crew, or picking up members of a team; the Navy did all that. Someone with that knowledge would be most beneficial. "Who will it be?"

"I think you'll only need one guess." The old Turian gave a smirk with his mandibles. "You two work together well, anyhow. How many assassination attempts have you stopped together? Four? Five?"

"Too damn many, Kryus." Shepard replied softly, though she was happy to hear that it would be Tela Vasir who would be accompanying her. The Asari, as a warrior, was as tough as they came, a hell of a shot, and pretty damn powerful when it came to biotics. "Am I allowed to bring in other Specters? If it's Xenos, a few more with experience wouldn't hurt in case I'm busy somewhere else."

"Sadly, we are rather tasked out at the moment with a few issues concerning the Batarian slavers and the Blood Pack running amuck in some darker corners of Citadel Space as of late." The Executor sighed, shaking his head. "The dozen or so that I have here I need to keep for emergencies and the like. Likewise, I believe our specialist pool is rather drained as well for the same reason. Thankfully, your team of humans is up for the task for the most part, so you'll at least have a compliment of your Alliance Marines, as well as your N's, who are trained in such things as ship clearing, I believe." That had Shepard nodding; boarding ships was an N-team job. "You do lack more tech-savvy personnel, any kind of science personnel, biotic strength, and data specialists. And I'm certain that we have little to provide at the moment."

"What about… well, what about the recruits in my class?" Shepard asked, surprising the Executor. "I mean, they're all Specter recruits, and I know most of how they got to be there. Between them, I think we could fill out those roles well. Besides, if this is a Specter mission, why not include them in? Have Instructor Cavius Raminion come in for instruction, command and control, but it gives them the same experience that I'll be learning. Plus, they won't be as jealous." Shepard smiled, making Kryus chuckle at that. "Hell, we've got… three Turians, two Asari, three Salarians, a Quarian, an Elcor, a Volus, and a Drell. Most of them were former military, several with SpecOps history, and every one of them is a fighter and a survivor. That'll give me… twenty-two? I'm not stealing your specialists, we all get to play, and Raminion can mentor the others while Vasir mentors me. I think it's a big plus in the win column."

"It's bold. It's got merit." Executor Contenus mused, rubbing his mandibles with his talons. "It does give you a wide variety of specialist skills, and experience for them as well. Thankfully, as an officer of your military, you've had training leading teams, and you also have assets with your humans to back you up a necessary. Raminion's been itching his plates to get out of the classroom, and would make a good team leader for you. Thankfully, he has no issues with you being a human, and he knows well enough to take your lead in this manner. His advice will be invaluable to you, as you being in charge of a human-oriented mission means he less at risk of being shot at by humans who are spooked by the sight of a Turian, Specter or not."

"Sounds like we're going to have ourselves a regular shin-dig." Shepard commented, making the old Turian look at her oddly; evidently, that didn't translate. "What of the Prothean object?"

"While we don't know if it is indeed Prothean or not," Kryus answered, "the Counsel will want it secured and returned for safe-keeping. Some of those Prothean devices are quite dangerous, and even something benign can spark a bidding war or some salvagers killing one another for something that could be worth millions of credits. It's safer with us, not to mention we possess enough researchers to determine its safety and value of knowledge. For this mission, I will be pulling in a specialist of Protheanology, someone who could readily identify its type. Sadly, most Protheanologists are rather unimaginative, mostly seeking buried treasures to sell to the highest bidder as oppose to doing real research and science. I looked up several Protheanologists from the various Universities, and I found one from Serrice on Thessia. She's young, but talented, and she's written papers on such things as art, culture, and architecture. She would be your best bet for someone who isn't looking for a quick credit or splashing her name throughout the archeological scene. She is, as they say, the real deal. Unfortunately, she's off on a dig on a planet called Feros, and you'll have to pick her up."

"Because that's what I do, pick up Asari." Shepard grumbled, making the Executor chuckle. "So, who's Indiana Jones? The archeologist?" The Turian didn't get the reference, but answered anyhow.

"Doctor Liara T'soni."

* * *

A/N: You saw that one coming, right? Prothean object, the Ishimura… what a mess! We're really going to be needing those Specters, aren't we?

In Mass Effect, Specters don't seem to last long. Heck, they can all plausibly die! I wanted there to be a reason why Specters aren't seen much; too damn busy. Soon I'll go into the multiple departments that Specters have, like Investigations, Undercover, and Insertions. Shepard would be a classic Insertion; all firepower.

This team is huge with eight humans and fourteen aliens. And then I'm stuffing them into the Ishimura? Inconceivable!


	4. 4: Trouble's Brewing

Disclaimer: BioWare owns Mass Effect. 20th Century Fox owns the _Alien_ franchise.

**Widow System, February 19, 2177**

1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard gathered with the rest of the humans and aliens in a ready room where several technicians were seeing to their needs. It was just past Last Light on the Citadel when everyone arrived to the Office of Special Tactics, a rather nondescript building in the Kyrsae Ward, near the Presidium. Gathering everyone and bringing them to the building hadn't been as much of a hassle as Shepard had feared it would, but it still had taken some time since many of her team and the Specter recruits had gotten off for the day before the call went out, and the time to collect them all had been time Shepard had used to prepare herself.

Her first Specter mission, leading so many, humans and aliens together… she was very nervous.

"Alright, people, listen up!" Shepard raised her voice as nineteen pairs of eyes looked to her as she stood in the front of the ready room, Special Tactics service techs scanning each of the people in the room for any possible infections or contagions while getting a baseline reading for each as well for their biometric locks for the equipment that would be issued. "As soon as the Salarians are done scanning you, I need each and every one of you save for Rebecca to line up at that door," she pointed out one of the doors in the room, "to get your armor and your Omnitools. When you're done with that? Then you go to that door," again, she pointed out the door in question which happened to be on the opposite side of the room from the first one, "which is the armory. I think most of us are going to love it in there." There were a few chuckles from that, Shepard using the joke to lighten the mood. "There, you'll be assigned the basic load pertaining to your specialties, as well as any extra equipment you feel that you are going to _justifiably_ need." She emphasized on the 'justifiable' part.

Shepard had already looked at the armory, and had immediately drooled at the sight of the selection of weapons. For the most part, she didn't need to go through the same hassles as everyone else, as she already had her own personal armor in the Serrice Counsel Heavy Armor, as well as a set of weapons that she was more than comfortable with. Fortunately for her, if she wanted, she could go through the armory that was meant for Specters-only; the recruits and her team of Marines were combing through the Specter specialists' equipment, which was still top-notched weapons, armor, and equipment, but not to the quality of what she, Tela Vasir, and Cavis Raminion could procure. Since she had been put as the lead of the mission, Executor Kryus Contenus had removed her 'recruit' status, and now 1st Lieutenant was officially a Level 2 Access Counsel Agent for the time being. The old Turian had explained to her that, after the mission, she would still have to finish her schooling and training, but her status would remain the same; she was a full-fledge Specter. The level of access and procurement of Citadel forces meant that she could, conceivably, call the Counsel at any time, request for a fleet from the Citadel Defense Forces, look through classified materials and redacted information not labeled for Level 3 Access or higher, and call upon judgment upon any Citadel citizen that wasn't of diplomatic status of a species government not her own. There was more to it than that, of course, and she would have to justify herself at any time if asked, but as a Level 2, Shepard was now the type of Specter that everyone thought of when they thought of Special Tactics and Reconnaissance.

Shepard might have been nervous as hell, but she was secretly excited as well.

Slowly, each member of her team began to file through to the armor and equipment phase, having been biometricly scanned so that they could be fitted for armor and equipment that would not only fit them properly, but also only be accessed by them. It made Shepard think of the Aldrin Labs' Onyx Armor that the Alliance issued out, a one-size fits uncomfortably that she once thought find until she learned the difference. The Onyx Armor was crap, barely fit to stop even weak fire from a cheap gun, and that was the kind of stuff that Corporate Alliance was giving the Marines? When she had seen what her teammates were going to be fitted with, Shepard was almost blown away by the difference in quality and capabilities. She was shocked to see that her Marines were going to be armored with Hadne-Keder's Heavy Predator Armor, a very high-quality armor that was reserved for N-teams! How the Office of Special Tactics gotten a hold of a least a dozen of them, Shepard had no idea. As to why they had them in the first place… had they _ordered_ them when she had become a Specter, knowing this day would eventually come? That had her contemplative; the Alliance would have merely whined about budgets, and told them that the request was sent. Specters, evidently, thought ahead. In addition to their armor, each Marine was given a high-end Logic Arrest Omnitool with upgraded memory capacity and Omnigel reserves, as well as a suite of VI's for running apps and linking to their armor. Shepard had to smile at that; all one had to do was simply talk to activate their Omnitool and run a hack as oppose to putting down their weapon and keying it in. The final piece was a head-mounted visor and earpiece made by Devlon Industries, lined to the armor and Omnitool. Each of her Marines now had radar capabilities, as well as several different vision capabilities.

Gods, why couldn't they have had this shit back on LV 426. So many more of her Marines and Team Dingo might have made it…

It took a better part of an hour to outfit the Marines and the Specter recruits before they hit the armory. The whole time they were doing so, Shepard, Tela Vasir, and Cavis Raminion were going over the equipment and supplies that they would need, filling in orders for the ship that they were to use, a Turian Frigate converted for Counsel Agent use. The re-classed CDF _Spirit of Vengeance_ had been retrofitted for Specter use, often used by a wide variety of Specters and their specialists. Shepard was glad to know that the ship was fitted to accommodate potentially _any_ species in Citadel space, including Elcor, Volus, and Quarian, the three races with the most unusual needs. Extra canisters of chorine gas, Enviro-Suit filters and repair kits, dextro supplies, a portion of the ships' Med Bay as an electrostatic clean room for Rahe'Tarram's use and any potential medical needs, beds and bunks to accommodate all of their various shapes and sizes… the _Spirit of Vengeance_ showed forethought and innovation. Shepard was also shocked to learn that it had been fitted with a prototype device that would make it incredibly hard to detect on ladar by injecting the ships' heat into disposable heat sinks. Unfortunately, the ship only possessed about ten of the canisters, which would be good for perhaps an hour of silent running each during low-energy states, and dumping the barreled-sized heat sink would bloom right on an enemy's sensor. Still, a _single_ hour of potential invisibility was nothing to sneeze at, even if the system had some obvious flaws. Shepard couldn't see the need for it for the mission they were going to embark on, but perhaps they would use it on approach. Couldn't hurt to see its capabilities. She was, after all, an architectural design student; perhaps she could come up with a way to improve its design.

"I've contacted a medical specialist from Hureta who will be coming on board with us." Cavis Raminion announced, working on his own datapad as Shepard was going through the inventory list of food, water, medical supplies, replacement parts for armor and weapons, and Omnigel reserves. "Salarian who has worked with just about every species, and can talk someone through an emergency procedure if needed."

"That's good. Your Medigel is crap, though. Substandard." Shepard told the Turian instructor as she ordered the stuff by the gallon. "Pretty sure Sirta didn't tell you that what they've been selling you is the stuff that didn't pass snuff through quality control. We don't even give this stuff out to the gloom-and-doom colonies."

"Typical human greed." Cavis spat out, making her _hmm_ but saying nothing else; she really couldn't find a fault with the Specter Instructor's ire. "Does your Medigel supplies suffice?"

"We've got about… forty applications for humans." Shepard admitted, thinking of the stuff they had brought from LV 426 and whatever had been on the UD-4 _Cheyenne_. "I don't know enough about anyone else's physiology to know how much a Turian might need if wounded. But it's potent, probably a quarter of whatever you normally need from this cheap crap. We'll save the good stuff for serious wounds, and slap the shit on for bandaids and second skins." Shepard was going to have to look into a way to procure some more of the quality Medigel that the Alliance Military had on hand. Perhaps she could call Captain Mal Reynolds, see if he knew of any smugglers or black market dealers who might have some. She didn't like the thought of having poor-quality Medigel for any of her team members. It looked to be that the stuff that Sirta Foundation had been selling the Citadel was the first batch that they had created back in the 50's, good for stopping bleeding with some mild painkillers and local-tropic anti-inflammatories. It would work on minor woulds and non-life-threatening situations. The good stuff, what Shepard would have loved to have ordered, would stave death if applied in time, having genemods and stem-cells laced in its hemopathic volumizers and sedatives to prevent necrosis and septicemia. As long as a soldier was still breathing, the tagline that Sirta pushed out, Medigel would keep them that way. "When we get back, I'll see if I can flash this nifty little 'Humanity's First Specter' card I've seem to got and see what I can do to order some of the more modern batches. Might have to spread it thin among Special Tactics, but some is better than none."

"You would do that?" Cavis asked, obviously surprised. "That is… quite honorable of you, Jane. I can't say that I would have done the same thing a few months ago for a human. Before I met you, I never thought your species worthy of knowing the time of day. I thought that perhaps you were a sole exception, or perhaps a rare one. But I've heard some of the C-Sec Agents talk about the human members of your team, and I've heard good things. Perhaps it is as you said last night at the interview; one needs to look more at an individual than to judge them all by the species alone. And… why is your plates turning red?"

"She's blushing again." Tela Vasir answered in a sing-song voice, looking up from her own datapad, going through the same inventories that Shepard was, adding in things that Shepard didn't know they would need, or double-checking the quantities. "She does that when she's embarrassed."

"Tela!" Shepard gasped out loud, her cheeks heating even further. Cavis Reminion began to chuckle. "Gods, you are _killing_ me!"

* * *

The CDF _Spirit of Vengenace_ was, in 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard's mind, a hell of a ship. A Turian Frigate-class vessel, it boasted advanced armor and kinetic shielding while possessing a Turian main battle cannon that could fire 100 gram uranium-slugs from under its belly at a rate of ten shots per minute, made to crack the armor on even a Dreadnaught. The vessel was made for speed, and though it looked funny to her, like some sort of bird of prey, Shepard had to admit that ship looked very capable. Still, she missed the sight of missile pods, auto-cannons, and the slats of iridium-reinforced armor on a human vessel.

Shepard watched as the last of the equipment was stowed away in the cargo bay of the _Spirit_, the men and women of her team having already loaded themselves in as she performed her last checks, fretting over last minute details with Tela Vasir. She had to admit that the Turians who were loading the ship were hard-working and very efficient, doing it faster and better than Navy Quartermasters and loaders. She noted how they did things, and wrote some notes on her datapad, hoping that she could incorporate such practices of using hoverlifts for carrying larger items as oppose to oversized YMIR loader mechs that couldn't walk through a cargo bay more than one at a time due to their size.

"_Priority message."_ Shepard's Omnitool rang out, interrupting her as she checked it quickly, and saw who it was from. The message came from her AllianceNet account, and she saw who had sent it to her.

"Tela? Can you finish this? My Pop just sent me an Emergency Contact ASAP request." Shepard told the Thessian who was standing next to her, feeling her face draining at the sight of the request. David had never sent her one before, and it could only be bad news.

"Of course. We are almost done, anyhow." The Counsel Agent replied quietly, obviously figuring out that Shepard was now worried about other things. "We shall be underway in an hour. Take as much time as you need."

"Thank you." Shepard placed a hand on Tela Vasir's shoulder, giving it a slight squeeze of affection as she moved towards the _Spirit_, making her way through the cargo bay and up the Turian-styled ladder meant for crew members as she arrived on the main deck, where her billet and office were located. As the lead Specter of the mission, she was rated as a temporary Captain of the Turian Hierarchy, and had the equivalent quarters to match it. When she went into her assigned berth, she was amazed by the size of it; it was easily a hundred square feet of area, with an Asari-styled bed, a work station, a closet for clothing, a locker space for weapons and armor, and her own personal water closet for bathing. Shepard shook her head at the sight, as fine a military billet as she had ever seen, before ignoring them and going to her work station. After cuing in her Specter encryption protocols, she accessed her AllianceNet server, and opened up a communications line to the transmitter of the message. Shepard waited for about five minutes for the light-lag to connect, when she saw a Skype screen open up, and a face appear in its window.

Captain David Edward Anderson.

"Pop! I just got your message!" Shepard said quickly, seeing her Pop's face on the viewer… had he ever been that old? He looked so tired and defeated, not at all what he looked like just a week ago, the last time she had talked to him for their weekly catch-ups.

"_Janey? I need to ask you something serious."_ Anderson spoke quietly, looking around whatever room he was in. _"Do you have any plans on leaving the Citadel?"_

"As in missions, or going back to the Alliance?" Shepard asked, a little confused. Her Pop had been the first person she had told about choosing to be a Specter after she told her team. He had been so proud of her, and she had witnessed him crying for the first time then. Now she looked at him, and it was as if someone told him someone very close to him had died. She knew that face; she wore it herself, once. "I'm almost enroute on my very first Specter mission, Pop, leading other Specters to a planet-fracker in distress. As for the Alliance, I've still got about another ten months of classes and training with Special Tactics. I'm… not too sure what will happen after that."

"_Janey… don't come back."_ Anderson spoke, and Shepard felt her heart seize in her chest; _what?_ "_There's been… something's happened, Janey, something bad. The Corporate networks and the Ministry of Information has kept a lid on it, but…_" The Black Fox sighed, his hands cradling his face, and Shepard couldn't remember a time Anderson had _ever_ looked like this. What the hell was going on? _"Just a few short hours ago, there was a coup."_

The world died as Shepard felt her whole body go cold, numb. _Oh Gods…_

"_I don't know the details,_" Anderson continued, _"but it looks like Corporate Security came in and pulled several Committee members from the Parliament, and then initiated a lockdown with certain members still inside. I think… I think we may had a new Head of Committee, and it looks like the first thing they did was suspend the Articles of Alliance."_

"Oh Gods no…" This wasn't happening. Shepard had a very hard time believing what she was hearing. If that had happened… "Tell me this isn't another Civil War, Pop!"

"_It looks that way._" Anderson said, defeated. _"Corporate may have seized power in the government, locking out the rest of the Committee, and may be ratifying something in place. What, I don't know. Calls for mobilization have been sounded out by several factions, Janey; it's a Goddamn mess. We… we don't know who's in charge, or what's going on. I just got off the phone with Fleet Admiral Grissom, and he's ordered all military vessels to stage at Arcturus in stand down, to prevent the military from joining in or being used. I've got most of the N's with me, and we may be pushed in to secure London. It looks like Corporate is going to seize as much political power first, and then start by seizing the competition. If they've created a voting bloc that has a large percentage of assets and resources at their side… we may need to blockade Sol from the rest of the galaxy."_

"Oh… _fuck_…" This was a nightmare; no, worse. Despite mining and agriculture having been moved to the colonies, most everything that Humanity needed was sent to Earth first. If Sol was locked down, all that food and material would be locked up with the system for whomever would come out on top. Not to mention the damage that would inevitably be done, the lives lost… "Can you confirm anything, Pop? This is going to scare a lot of people at my end of things. The Citadel expects us to patrol Alliance Space. If we're embroiled in a Civil War… they may take steps." Shepard didn't need to think on what the Counsel might do if they thought the Alliance Government a threat.

"_Two things, neither of them are going to please you."_ Anderson sighed, and he pulled out a bottle of what appeared to be rum, and poured it into a plastic disposable cup. "_First? Director Jack Harper was taken from Court, under armed escort, and Prosecutor Giamanti was shot trying to stop them."_ Shepard felt a sob escape her, remembering the man's last words to her; one a promise to prosecute that son-of-a-bitch, and the others from the interview, giving her his support. A good man now dead. "_If I had to guess, I believe Harper may now be in Parliament, either as a part of the voting bloc… or in control of it."_

"Fuck…" Could things get worse?

"_The second thing they want is you, Janey, for treason."_

Her whole body went numb, all sensation of control leaving her for more than a few seconds. If Shepard hadn't been sitting down in a chair, she would have collapsed on the ground.

"T-treason?" Shepard couldn't believe her ears. _Treason?_ "What for?" Her mouth could barely work properly, her words tumbling through stiff lips. "I haven't told any Alliance secrets or given the Counsel anything damning. Hell, quite the opposite, and they are aware of it! What treasonous act have I accomplished?" Her anger was starting to boil over now, fighting the cold numb of defeat in her heart. "Was it the sick fucking experiments they were conducting? Or was it the fact that I wouldn't be a good little girl and let me and my men die so Weyland-Yutani could have another fucking good quarter?"

"_I don't know, but Fleet Master Grissom received that message a few hours ago, prompting him to think that something was wrong."_ Anderson explained. "_He got into contact with another Committee member who had been sick and hadn't shown up, and somehow narrowly avoided being captured by a goon squad. Some N's rescued him, and now we're protecting one of the few people we know may not be in on this. He filled us in on some details, and now we're here, waiting word."_ Shepard still couldn't believe her ears. Why was this happening?

She knew why.

"This is my fault, Pop." Shepard said, feeling her anger die, the ugly head of truth coming up. "I did something they didn't expect; I survived and went straight to the Counsel. Now Earth is suffering for it." Gods, what could be happening to humanity's home planet right now? She didn't even want to dwell on it.

"_Stop that, right there."_ Anderson growled, garnering her attention through her growing depression "_You did something incredible, Janey, and now we have one of Earth's _finest_ standing at the heart of galactic civilization, showing them what a human can do. I'm proud of you, Janey, and you've done everything right. Do you know how many N's are here, talking about you? Half of them knew you as a girl before OCS, and all they do is tell stories… telling the others who never met you who you _are_. You've got our support, Jane Catherine Shepard, so you had best keep walking that road you're on, because you just may be the one damn thing going that is right. And that comes from the Fleet Master himself, too."_

"Jon Grissom wants me to continue?" Shepard swallowed, the name of Earth's greatest hero making her shiver slightly.

"_Your orders are to continue with your training, Janey, to become a full-fledge Specter."_ Anderson relayed, a smile finally growing on his haggard face. _"Learn, train, excel; I know you can do these things. Things might get ugly here, but right now we need someone to look up to, someone to believe in. We need someone that humanity can point to and say 'that's how it's done'. For all we know, the opinions of the Counsel may very well be swayed by you, keeping something worse from happening. I'll keep you abreast the best I can, Janey, but for now? Ignore everything coming from Earth, and be prepared to dig in. I have a feeling that things will get worse before they get better."_

"Should… should I tell the others? Royce? Stacy? Gods help me, should I tell the Counsel?" Shepard asked, her tone quiet. She was barely swallowing the news herself, and now there were eight other human beings who would want to know, not to mention several other authority figures in the Citadel. Anderson went quiet for a long time, looking at her.

"_Tell them everything."_ Anderson finally replied, taking another swallow of rum. "_Grissom thought this might happen, and you're cleared Top Secret. If it will protect Earth… do what you need to do. If we come out on top, you might just be the one to save us all. If we don't… it won't matter anyhow."_

"I'll… I'll get them on the line." Shepard wiped away a tear that escaped her eye, feeling the anger and rage burning within her, matching the fear and terror she felt. "Pop… please take care. I want you to meet Tela, I want you to see me become a full-fledged Specter, I…" She couldn't finish the sentence, but there was no need; her Pop understood.

"_I will, Janey. I love you, and know that you always have my thoughts with you… Agent Shepard._" That had her snort. _"I'll message when I can with updates."_

With that, the line went dead, and Shepard's heart went dead with it.

* * *

The communications room aboard the CDF _Spirit of Vengeance_ was, like the rest of the Turian Frigate, a state-of-the-art marvel that 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard didn't have the time or the inclination to truly appreciate. Instead, she was looking at several holographic monitors filled with alien faces, all of them looking at her as she called upon an emergency session with no less than the Counsel of Three, the Executor of Special Tactics, the Executor of C-Sec, the Head of Special Tasks Groups, and the Head Speaker of the Citadel Intelligence Agency. Three Turians, three Salarians, and an Asari were all looking at her, having received her message and vidcomm'ed her back in a reasonable amount of time. Thankfully, the Specter classes she had been taking had covered something like this, so Shepard knew whom she needed to contact, and how to address the severity of the situation. When she took the class but a few weeks ago, it had never occurred to her that 'Government Collapse' just might be the only lesson she needed to learn most.

"Counsel members, Executors, Chairmen, thank you for your timely reply." Shepard spoke towards the wall covered with the holographic images, knowing that her face would be appearing before each member in the same fashion. It seemed that, due to the late hour, every one of the members were at their respective domiciles. How often had something like this occurred to them? It wasn't a pleasant thought. "I apologize for the hour, but I just received word from my adopted father of a possible coup on Earth. Details are sketchy as of right now, but it seems that Corporate Security ejected several members of Parliament, have the building on lockdown to prevent members from coming in, and there is a session running much later than usual in Parliament. We don't exactly know _who_ is in charge right now, or what they are doing. At the very least, they are amending the Articles of Alliance as we speak without the approval of a full Committee or the Courts. To what end?" Shepard had nothing for that.

"_That is dire news."_ Counselor Sparatus Quinlanius spoke first, shifting in his chair. _"Is there any other information?_"

"Yes, and it gets worse." Shepard admitted. "It seems that Corporate Security went to the Weyland-Yutani trial and secured Director Harper, extracting him. They also shot the Lead Prosecutor right in the courtroom." That had been hard for her to say. "Fleet Master Jon Grissom is currently pulling all Alliance Military vessels to Arcturus, to secure the exit of Sol relay and effectively shutting out Earth from the rest of Alliance Space. He's doing his best to keep the military from getting involved like it did in the Alliance/Independents War. He was also ordered to arrest me for treason." That had Executor Kryus Contenus snort out loud. She didn't even know Turians could do that.

"_We do not give up our Agents."_ The Executor of Special Tactics announced. _"You would think someone would have learned over the past few months and several failed assassination attempts of that little fact."_

"_Which brings us up to our next question; what do we do about it?_" That was the Head Speaker of the CIA, Shupa Beslian, addressed. "_If the Alliance Military is blocking off the only access into Sol, our options are limited. So will be any information we can glean."_

"If you have anyone in Sol, please warn them." Shepard replied, looking to the Speaker. "Let them know that they will not be able to leave, and to make themselves as invisible as possible. My species can get pretty stupid at such times, and there's a good many times in our history we use 'differences' as an excuse to justify why things are going wrong, instead of blaming incompetence. While the Military can physically blockade Sol, news and the extranet won't be. Corporate-sponsored media is still in full swing, and there's very little the military can do to cut those feeds without cutting off everything." Shepard explained. "Honestly… I think the only real solution out of this _is_ war; the military is going have to take on the government, probably supplant it. I can't really see any other choice other than to let whoever is doing this to take charge with the rest of us huddling in fear at the repercussions." She rubbed at the back of her neck. "Humanity is a lot more fragile that we let on. We've only got two self-sustaining colonies, but the rest rely on trade from Earth. If the blockade continues… humanity out in the 'verse is going to start starving in about three months. Perhaps less. Total collapse of everything around the same time."

Her declaration was met with a profound silence.

"_Jane._" Executor Contenus spoke up first. _"This is probably a radical idea for you, but it is something that we Turians did during the Unification Wars. When our colonies were fighting one another to lord over all, the Hierarchy simply sat and let it happen, letting the colonies beat themselves into submission until it was time to move in. But in the Second Unification Wars, there was a Turian leader who took command of the Hierarchy Forces, who got the colonies to submit without firing a shot from the sheer size of our fleets and their firepower. That leader wasn't a General or an Admiral. His name was Tarrin Vakarian, and he was a Counsel Agent."_

"You mean to suggest…" Shepard couldn't believe her ears.

"_Go through with your mission, Jane, and we'll begin moving Citadel Defense Forces in preparation."_ Kryus spoke. _"When you come back, you'll have enough ships to match your Alliance Military, in which you can negotiate for cooperation. If the Alliance Military agrees, then our fleets will move in on Earth where we shall follow _your_ lead on the hopes of restoring order and getting your government running properly. That is, of course, with the Counsel's approval."_

"_Agreed."_ The Three said almost at the same time, and Shepard felt her heart almost seize again. _Oh Gods… I… is this really happening? They're… they're going to let me save Earth!_

"I… I don't know what to say… but thank you." Her words tumbled out, and it was hard for her to actually see straight as she blinked away tears. "We're already underway to Feros. I'll give you reports as required." Shepard had a hard time getting a grip on herself, too much was happening at once. "I should go. There's a lot on my mind, and a mission I need to plan."

"_Then may the Goddess watch over you, Agent."_ Counselor Tevos T'essus replied with a smile. _"As I am sure your Gods will watch over you._"

In the end, she told everyone the truth.

The crew deck of the CDF_ Spirit of Vengeance_ was filled with the team members under 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard's command, both human and alien listening silently as she explained the situation on Earth. Not one word was said when she told them of the expulsion of members of the Parliamentary Committee members, the voting bloc that was taking place, or the subsequent rescue of Director Harper and the murder of Michael Giamanti. She even told them of her own personal charge of treason, and every human in front of her looked like they were going to be sick. She told them what Fleet Master Grissom had done with the military, but at least the humans understood the ramifications; a blockade would surely be the demise of humanity out in the colonies. She handed them the Gods-awful truth.

And then she told them what she planned to do about it.

The silence was stunning as Shepard explained the Counsel's plan; to send the Citadel's fleet to aid the Alliance in the attempt to take back Earth. It would be the largest gathering of warships since that Krogan Rebellion, and she would be in charge of half of it. That had Shepard's stomach tied in knots, the thought of being in command of so much. She was just a Marine Lieutenant; what did she know about fleets? She figured that, at best, she would be a figurehead, a symbolic image thrusted out for all to see, a gathering point for those concerned. She wouldn't actually be in charge, just the one expected to make the speeches and such. Which wasn't exactly that much better.

"Damn, Janey." Captain Royce Mason breathed out finally, shaking his head. "Wish in one hand, shit in the other. Those fuckers thought they'd get away wit' it all 'till you and your merry band went and found out the truth."

"And then they went and took over the Goddamn government." Master Chief Stacy Valentino shook her head, swearing. "What, they think we wouldn't have a say in it?"

"Yeah, because they've been trying to kill us since day one, man." Corporal-Technician Bill Hudson pointed out. "Obviously this was in the works, they've been trying to get us dead because they know people would listen to us."

"Too late now, _pendejos_." Corporal Jeanette Vasquez growled, flexing her fists. "When I make it back to Earth? I'm gonna stomp some Corporate slime and carve our names into 'em. Bitch? Let me borrow your sword." That had Sergeant Rite Vrataski chuckle, her signature sword strapped on her back.

"What I don't understand," Counsel Agent Tela Vasir spoke up, "is why? It's a bold move, but wouldn't it excite elements to try and overthrow them? Rebellion, economic collapse, strikes and the such? It seems like they could have accomplished the same thing with bribes and accidental deaths."

"That's an interesting point." Royce mused. "Why now? What made it so bloody important to do somethin' so high-profile? Coups are what you hear about in tiny little Nationalist Earth countries that the Alliance don't give a shit about. They might as well thrown a barbie out back and shot out some star flowers in the sky."

"That, we'll have to figure out later, but it is something worthy to note." Shepard looked to Tela, giving her a small smile. "Until we come back, we focus on the _Ishimura_. I contemplated waiting to tell you when we got back, but I'd rather give you bad news up-front than for you to hear snippets and rumors and think the worse." That had everyone human nodding their heads in understanding. "For now, bunk down, chow down, and relax. Captain says that it'll take us a little under a day and a half just to reach the Attican Beta Cluster, and another two hour FTL burn to reach the Thessus System, where Feros is located. I want everyone to get the chance to get acquainted with their equipment, putting it where it fits, and go through some simple drills with it. When we reach Feros and collect Dr. T'soni, we'll allocate a few hours to squad tactics, make sure we're all operating on the same frequencies and callsigns before we head back out to the Hades Nexus Cluster. Any questions?"

"Yes. Who's been eating the Turian chocolate?" Specter Garrus Vakarian asked, looking around. "I can smell it."

"Um, sorry?" Rahe'Tarram nar Sofis waived, sipping through what appeared to be a straw connected to a sealed plastic bag through her vocalizer. "I've never had chocolate before!" Several members on the crew deck began to snicker as the Turian sniper sighed.

"I guess I'm sharing."

* * *

Sleep. The Asari-styled bed was truly a comfortable thing, 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard thought as she slowly woke up for the ship's First Light, stretching out on the bed that was in her assigned berth. The mattress was filled with something that resembled memory foam, but was much softer. If she ever owned a place, Shepard would buy an Asari mattress; Thessians would make a lot of money if they advertised on Earth.

"Sleep well?"

Shepard looked over to see Tela Vasir laying next to her, sharing the bed in a manner that was a little more than friendly, yet a little less than intimate. She herself was still wearing her Alliance-issued sports bra and boxer briefs, while the Counsel Agent wore something that she assumed was the Asari version of a nightgown, though it resembled more a one-piece bathing suit. Shepard remembered how embarrassed she was when she had worn so little in front of the Specter, the Asari able to see the scars that now decorated her skin from the fight she had with the three Asari back on LV 426. The scar on her face was always present, yet that one didn't bother her as much as the one that went down her right flank, going from ribs to hip, like a zipper in her flesh. The rest of her scars were smaller and harder to find, but the thought of them still embarrassed her.

"Yes." Shepard's reply was shy, as she wasn't sure what she should do next. Sleeping alongside the Asari hadn't bothered her, her Biological Terror Syndrome having not flared up with being in the presence of an alien in close proximity for the entirety of the night. They hadn't done anything the previous night, as she was bone tired after everything that had occurred. She thought of the news about Earth, and she felt saddened that she would be enjoying herself while back in London, someone in Corporate was trying to seize the government and try her for a traitor. Tela fixed the dark thoughts running through Shepard's mind by placing a gentle hand on her cheek and bringing soft lips to her own, kissing her softly, yet sweetly. "Hmm, now that is a way to start a day." Shepard smiled, the tingle that the kiss left still an impression on her own lips, pleasant and soothing.

"I'm glad you approve." The Thessian smiled as she slid onto Shepard, her body pressing into hers as the Specter lowered herself onto the human. "I would like for you to close your eyes, Jane. I would like to try this time."

"O-okay." The nervousness immediately flared up inside of her as Shepard felt herself losing control to her BTS. She looked up to Tela, and saw that the Asari's eyes had already turned ebony black, the Thessian giving her a nod, indicating to trust her. Despite the panic flooding her veins, Shepard did close her eyes, fighting her body's reaction by controlling her breathing, fighting the adrenaline that threatened to surge through her body. She was able to lessen it slightly through determination, and Shepard nodded her head, indicating that she was ready for whatever the Specter had in mind.

Shepard gave off a small gasp as she felt a thought caressing her own.

Her body tried to stiffen and jerk back from the act, but her mind had other ideas; the thought that touched was one that felt calming, serene. It brushed with her again, just a touch, and Shepard felt herself comforted by it, the panic slowly seeping away, as if her body realized it wasn't in danger. The thought came once more, but this time instead of backing away, it stayed with her, a soft feeling of warmth and compassion that stayed inside of her, a thought that wasn't her own, but one that was pleasant, enjoyable, even. It had been like that the night before, just little wisps of thoughts that had Shepard's panic slip away, replacing it with compassion and harmony.

"You can open your eyes now, Jane."

Shepard did, looking at the face of Tela Vasir, her darkened eyes looking right into her own, her face one that had Shepard wishing she could take it in her hands, to bring it closer. Her hands slid up on the Thessian's body as she did just that, kissing Tela softly as the thought that had touched her mind grew warmer, stronger.

"Tela…" Shepard felt herself panting as the thought continued to caress her emotions, like the hands of a lover guiding inside of her. "Oh Gods, was this what you meant when you said it got better?"

"This is very little, _dhan'rana_._" _Tela replied with a knowing smile, calling her 'one I care for'. "A true meld? You would find it impossible to tell your emotions from my own, as if we shared the same mind and body."

"A-and you can feel mine?" Shepard asked, pleasantly mystified. The thought was still there, and Shepard found the soothing spot in her mind and gave it one of her own, a little push of caring. That had the Thessian smile.

"See? Was that so bad?" Tela smiled as she kissed her, as if to congratulate her. "You will be better with practice, of course, but I see you are trying for the basics. Now I want you to relax as I give you a little more of an opening. It might be a little overwhelming." Shepard nodded, and then started to gasp out loud as she felt several different thoughts slide into her own, each one different as she laid there shivering. She clutched at the Thessian as she felt the dozen or so spots that seemed to flutter about in her mind, feelings of joy and compassion, friendship and trust, passion and unity, all floated within her, warming her as Shepard let off a moan of surprised pleasure from it. As soon as she had a grip on herself, Shepard felt even more flooding in, thoughts multiplying as she began to shake and shiver with the invasion. She clutched Tela, holding onto her as if she were an anchor as Shepard had a hard time paying attention to what was happening around her, her mind seemingly wanting to pay attention to what was happening within her. Slowly the thoughts began to pour in, like water from a faucet as Shepard gasped and moaned, her body gyrating as she gripped at the Asari, crying out as more and more emotions filled within her, suffusing her. Asari and human mind began to merge, bridging the chasm between them as two minds drew closer together, thoughts and emotions moving back and forth as fast as light until the difference between was no more.

They had melded.

_Oh Gods…_ Shepard couldn't even talk, her body a forgotten shell as she found herself embracing essence, molding with the spirit of the Thessian as it meld with her own. The physical closeness of the two of them was a painful distance gratefully forgotten as Shepard experienced something far greater and more passionate than a physical embrace. _This is beyond incredible!_

_I am glad that you enjoy it._ Tela spoke without words, her thoughts ringing alongside Shepard's own, a voice that came from within her. _This is a meld, _dhan'rana,_ this is what it means to my people to be together._

_It's marvelous_. Shepard thought, her essence warmed along Tela's. If she could have still felt her body, she would have felt the tears that streamed down her face, or how her body clutched at the Asari above her, panting and moaning, begging for it to never end. Yet Shepard was in oblivion with only one other spirit, their essences slowly entwining, twisting around one another like ribbons wrapped around a pole. _I… I never knew… words can't describe how this feels!_

_Now you see why my race seems so promiscuous to the others; they lack the understand of what it means to be together, to be free of body and restriction. _Tela's spirit entwined itself even more around Shepard's, slowly becoming a cocoon of warmth and love around her. _In this, it is only we who matter, and even time bends to our will. We could be here for hours while only seconds pass. I would like to show you all that means to me and more, Jane. I wish to bond with you._

_What does that mean? I mean…_ there was no fear in her, as if it had been washed away. Shepard would have worried about that before, but now? It was mere curiosity. _To bond? What does that mean to you? Perhaps hearing it will help me understand it?_

_Of course._ The thought of a smile came to Shepard, as well as affection as the Thessian's spirit continued to encircle her, the differences between them growing weaker. _To bond is to join; a part of me shall be a part of you, and likewise. No matter the distance between us, we will always be connected. Your fears, your hopes, your pains, your pleasures, I shall share with you, as you will share with me. For an Asari, to meld is pleasure, but to bond is to love. I wish to bond with you, Jane Shepard, to share myself with you. I wish to show you every part of me, no matter how dark or ugly. I wish to be a part of you, to ease your doubts and your fears, to give you support and encouragement. Simply put, I want to belong to you, and you to me._

_Like… marriage, but more._ Shepard thought, and the thought of a wedding came to her, and was immediately shared with Tela. _Is this wise, doing this so fast? We humans have some unspoken rules about jumping into an empty pool without looking… _Shepard admitted that she was a little embarrassed at the thought, but she didn't understand what it was that Tela was asking for; the Thessians' words and Shepard's understanding were at two separate levels. _Don't think I'm not interested, it's just… I don't know what this all means yet. You ask me questions about human culture and meanings of words all the time, but this… it seems so much more. I don't want to agree with something I don't fully understand and causing the both of us pain._

_I understand, Jane._ Tela thought back to her, her essence calming, soothing. _Sometimes it is hard to remember just how new a race you are to the greater galaxy. Most understand what an Asari bond entails, if only the basics. To bond, it is simple; pick a memory, something of significance, something that makes you think of me. When you have selected it, you give it to me like a selfless gift. That thought shall be the beginning of our bond, what everything else will be built on. Since it is your thought or memory in my mind, it is a link of you I possess, as I do the same with you. When that is complete, the bond is formed from those two thoughts, and the sharing of such a memory will stick with you. Inside of your mind, you shall always feel me, able to feel what I feel, regardless of distance, just as I am able to do with you._

_So… it's like a phone call in which is in our minds, one that's always on? _Shepard wondered, thinking it over. _Do we only feel emotions? What about thoughts?_

_That comes later._ Tela explained. _For now, it is simply your emotions and your surface thoughts. Later, as the bond grows and matures, you can share the most intimate of your thoughts with me, the deepest of secrets, the worst of your fears, and in the sharing of them, you can experience them with me, not having to face your fears or your turmoils alone. It is why my race seems so serene and tranquil; we connect with those we've bonded to, and with it, we slowly grow to master ourselves in ways unimaginable. If you want this, if you are comfortable with this, I would like to share with you a part of me I have never shared with anyone else. _

Shepard, her essence still entwined with the Thessians', made her choice. In her mind came a memory, one that she held dear to her. It was concerning nothing more exciting than a day when She and Tela had watched a vid together; Star Wars, Episode XII, in fact. It had been a day where they had relaxed together, just sharing the simpler things together, but somehow, Shepard realized on that day that she did have feelings for the Asari Specter, that she couldn't stop looking at her or thinking about her. It was this that she shyly sent away, pushing it towards the essence of Tela Vasir. The Asari's spirit glowed with happiness as it took the gift, sharing a memory that was once her own, how Shepard saw the Thessian. She then felt a different kind of thought come to her, one that wasn't a warm spot, but more substantial, more real, like a weight in zero-g. Shepard brushed the new thought, and found herself experiencing something Tela had given her, recognizing it for what it was; the day they had went to get coffee and found themselves facing down ten assassins. Shepard was shocked to discover that she was watching the event from _Tela's_ point of view, the thoughts she had, and the wild risk she took in kissing Shepard. She could believe that Tela had already had some feelings indicating that she might like Shepard that way, and had kissed her just to see if it felt right. The memory ended with the kiss and the rushing feeling that Tela felt when her lips met Shepards'.

_Is… is that what it felt like to you?_ Shepard wondered, surprised. _I get a tingle. And here I thought you did that because I called you my hot-ass girlfriend!_

_I _am_ your hot-ass girlfriend,_ dhan'rana_. _Tela thought back, her essence still glowing. Shepard was marveling how the thought she had sent seemed to have a string attached to it, a string that led back to her essence, while the one Tela gave her had a string that trailed back to the Thessian's. The cords of essence and spirit slowly entwined themselves once, Shepard noted, and it occurred to her that this was the true act of bonding; the entwining of spirits. The emotional response from the Asari was growing in intensity, passion and love glowing from her essence, wrapping around Shepard's spirit like a blanket made of the most special material ever made. _I… I was worried you would be too afraid to try, that you would turn me down._ Tela thought, their meld growing more intimate. _What made you want to?_

_When I am with you, I feel… stronger, more confident._ Shepard admitted. _Yet at times like these, I don't feel afraid to share myself with you, the doubts I feel, the fears inside me. I trust you in a way I don't think I've ever trust anyone. You could have easily been one of those Asari you despised to what most consider some barbarian, but instead you gave me a chance to prove myself not only to you, but to me, too. You were… you were the first non-human I had ever interacted with, and yet I found that it wasn't so bad, that you weren't out to rape my brain or any of that nonsense. You showed me that you were a person, and that you were worth being a friend to, as well as one I could confide in. I… I want that in my life, Tela; that trust, that feeling of completeness I feel whenever I'm with you. It hasn't been easy for me, being together, but it has been worth every terrifying step. You haven't disappointed me or let me down. I… I want you. In my life, and… and I want to reach the point where I don't care if others know or not. I'm not ashamed, but I am afraid of the consequences from some of the more asshole versions of my species._

_I understand. We Asari have our own bigots._ The Thessian admitted, a rueful tone to her thoughts. _But for now, I am quite content. Just wait until we reach _je'tal_. That would be the 'sex' part._

_Gods, there's more? _

* * *

A/N: The first prototype stealth system, as well as a ship thermal clip. And I did name the ship after Ghost Rider.

Poor Earth.

I made an attempt to actually describe what a mindmeld was; a sort of metaphysical linking of the minds through an Asari's evolved nervous system, where thoughts and emotions can be shared. And yes, I haven't even reached the 'sex' part yet.


	5. 5: Feros, What A Shithole

Disclaimer: BioWare owns Mass Effect. 20th Century Fox owns the _Alien_ franchise. LucusArts owns all _Star Wars_ related material.

**Attican Beta Cluster, February 21, 2177**

_Feros,_ 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard thought to herself, _is a shithole._

The planet, a giant ruin of an ancient Prothean city that spread over about two-thirds of the planet's landmass, went extinct along with its race over 50,000 years ago. It was barely habitable by human standards, with high wind velocities, choking dust, about five times the air pressure, and a little bit on the chilly side. The CDF _Spirit of Vengenace_, being a Turian Frigate, was able to land in planet's only colony, taking residence in its docks as Shepard led her team of Marines and Specters out from the ship and onto the dilapidated docks of Zhu's Hope, the name of the colony. It had been in existance for a decade, the ExoGeni Corporation trying to settle a self-sustaining colony while researchers and diggers went through the ruins on the hopes of finding something useful. Shepard clucked her tongue on the roof of her mouth, finding the thought of such blatant scavenging distasteful. A University wanted to do it with trained and educated personnel? That was one thing. Some poor rube human who probably couldn't tell the difference between a trinket or a toy? All they were hoping for was a quick credit, or to stab someone else in the back to steal their claim. She had heard of enough stories in the past from her Pop to know she didn't like such behavior.

Shepard could feel the bond within her pulse softly, helping calm her.

"Geez, I know we asked for more people…" A human man wearing what looked to be a pair of worker's dungarees and a breathing tube that connected to his nose and looped behind his ears spoke as Shepard led her team from the Turian Frigate. The man's eyes went wide when all twenty-one of them exited the Frigate, looking at the amount of people exiting the ship, as well as their races. She could tell that he noted that they were armed and armored, and she imagined that they probably looked like an invasion force. Shepard almost had to smirk as the man's jaw dropped open, and she decided to save him from embarrassing himself further by approaching him. Poor guy looked like he was about to have a heart attack.

"Good day, sir." Shepard spoke as she approached the man, sticking out a hand for him to shake. She kept her tone friendly and polite, and the man took her hand and shook it, obviously at a loss on what else to do as a platoon-sized element of heavily-armed beings just dropped onto his lap from a Turian warship. "I'm Jane Shepard, Lieutenant in the Alliance Marines, and a Counsel Agent of Special Tactics." The man looked at her, his face going through a myriad of responses to that; shock, confusion, and the blood ran out of his face as he gaped at her like a fish out of water. She was probably going to have to get use to that kind of response for a bit, Shepard thought to herself. "We're here to locate a researcher with the Serrice University Expedition. Can you point us in the direction of someone who can help us find them?"

"I… ah, yes. Yes I can." The man finally answered, stumbling over his words. "I'm Mark, by the way… Specter." His tone squeaked at that.

"Shepard will do, Mark." She told him, getting the man to nod. He turned and began walking down a stone corridor that had seen better millenia, the chips and cracks in the infrastructure making it look as if the structure they were in would topple at any moment. It took Shepard a second to realize that she was walking in an actual Prothean building, the angles and remaining decor of the structure never having been shaped by human hands. A few Corporate propaganda posters had been slapped on the dirty walls as Mark walked through the corridor, turning down to a stairwell, in which Shepard and her team followed, a glance back showing that most of them were looking about like tourists, looking at an actual Prothean ruin; something that most had obviously never have seen before. The bond inside Shepard's mind glowed happily, and she realized that she could feel Tela Vasir's mood, which was one of enjoyment. Shepard recalled how the Specter said that if she had to do it all over again, she would wish to be an explorer. _Well, I guess this is something like exploring_. Shepard mused to herself, the feeling coming from the Thessian pleasant. She had had all of a day to get use to the feeling of the bond within her, that small glow that seemed to playfully share Tela's emotions and sometimes even whispered thoughts to her. It was comforting, actually, and she found that she rather enjoyed having something like the bond being a part of her.

Mark led the team of twenty-one Marines and Specters into the proper of Zhu's Hope.

_What a fucking shithole…_ Shepard looked about as she began walking through the 'colony', what looked to be a converted freighter turned into domiciles for the workers and residents for the colony. It was perhaps mid-day for the colony, and Shepard saw the bustle of activity for the colonists at their work; some seemed to be agriculturalists, carrying tools meant for farming and crops, while others looked more like dock workers. The compartments of the ship were opened, and it was easy for her to tell that keeping them clean from the ever-present dust of Feros was an on-going chore. Blankets and curtains draped the entrances, and Shepard was a little shocked to see that the containers were really communal living, ship bunks opened for whomever wanted to live in them. ExoGeni just dropped a ship on the planet and had the colonists live in it instead of transporting some pre-fab buildings? That was ruthless, even for a Corporation.

"Fai Dan is right over there, he's the colony's mayor." Mark pointed out an Asian-looking man, who was working in an open container office with a datapad in hand, engrossed in what appeared to be administrative duties. Shepard turned back to her team, nodding her head once to let them know to standby; they were there to 'convince' anyone that listening and complying would be the wiser choice. A small brush with her bond had Shepard smile as she gave it a thought of holding hands. Tela Vasir came towards her, nodding that she was ready, giving her a small smile as they both walked towards the impromptu office. Shepard saw that Fai Dan was a middle-aged Asian man, dressed in a Corporate-styled work suit, a one-piece that was both rugged and utilitarian. She walked into the office, seeing that there was little else save a desk and a chair for furnishings, Fai Dan still working through his datapad, completely ignoring the two people that stood in front of him. Shepard decided that she didn't like rudeness, and gently took the datapad from the man's hands, plucking it away from him. Fai Dan squawked at the action, his face ugly as he turned his attention on her while Shepard powered down the datapad and set it on the desk.

"Generally, it's considered polite for a gentleman to stand for a lady who approaches him." Shepard informed the man as he looked at her with a squint, obviously not pleased with seeing a newcomer invading his space. "Can you believe it, Tela? No civility left in the galaxy what-so-ever." The Thessian merely _hmmm'ed_ at the comment as Shepard folded her arms across her chest, standing in a way that would appear that she was looking down at the man still sitting at his seat. "We're here for the Serrice University Expedition. We'll need location and transportation to their dig site."

"Unfortunately, we're a little too busy to be accepting requests from mercs and crooks at the moment." Fai Dan spat out, folding his hands as he leaned his forearms on the table in front of him. "You're just going to have to find them yourself, and go there yourself."

"Plan B, then." Shepard put her foot on the edge of the table, and pushed into it, hard. The table slid across the floor as she pinched Fai Dan in between a bulkhead wall and the table, the man crying out in pain as Shepard leaned into the table, getting its edge to squeeze into the Asian man's belly. He coughed and gagged slightly, his face turning red. "Location. Transportation. It wasn't a request." Shepard spelled it out to the man, and she felt amusement trickle through her bond. Tela was enjoying herself. "Have I made my point, sir?"

"Y-yes…" The man gasped, clenching his teeth as his face was controted in pain, trying to push the desk away from his belly and rib cage without success. "There's a GRZLY out back, and a map to the dig sight for the supply runs in its navigation system."

"Good. Now show me your Omnitool." Shepard demanded, making the man look at her with bewilderment, yet he did as she asked, holding out his left arm warily. Shepard turned on her Omnitool, Fai Dan's eyes going wide at the sight of the red Omnitool as she touched her's to his. "Good. I just placed a tracking program on your Omnitool." She informed the man, looking into his dark eyes. "Turn it on, send a message, make a call, or look something up on the VIOS? I can see it all on my, and shut it off as I please." Shepard smiled at the man, using one of her new Specter toys and explaining it to him. "If you think about double-crossing me? I can cause the power source in your Omnitool to explode… along with about half of your wrist and hand. _Dohn ma?_"

"I understand!" The Asian man replied, terror in his voice, looking at her in fear. Good; the conditions of the colony sickened her, and Shepard knew a Corporate goon when she saw one, some executive administrator who probably verbally abused the colonists to pull out a better profit.

_What a shithole._ Shepard thought to herself as she lifted her foot from the table, turn around, and left the office.

* * *

"_Next stop; food court, intergalactic shopping, and Prothean ruins! Thank you for selecting Valentino tours!_" The voice of Master Chief Stacy Valentino rang out from the colony's GRZLY intercom, a civilian version that sported more seating and no weapons what-so-ever. 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard stood near the door, gripping a ceiling rung as she looked at the occupants of the GRZLY, half of her team inside the APC while the other half remained back at Zhu's Hope. She had left Specter Instructor Cavius Reminion behind to see what things he could do for the colony, figuring a little goodwill couldn't hurt, along with half of her Marines and the Specter recruits. The conditions of Zhu's Hope were rather appalling, and there was obvious need of some technical skills to fix some of the equipment that the colonists didn't have the supplies or the know-how to do. To that, she left Captain Royce Mason, Corporal-Technician Bill Hudson, and Sergeant Rita Vrataski from her team of Marines, as well as the Turian Vona Shatari, the Drell Kya Drang, the Elcor Bull Naor, the Volus Cur Dileed, and the Salarians Porol Lamal and Daeporm Norban back at the colony to do what they could to improve the situation. The rest of them had come with her; Master Chief Stacy Valentino, Sergeant Dwayne Hicks, and Corporal Jeanette Vasquez for her Marines, and Tela Vasir, the Quarian Rahe'Tarram nar Sofis, Turians Garrus Vakarian and Elias Krovan, Asari Asha T'vara and Ulla D'veora, and Salarian Jondum Bau for her Specters. Thankfully, the GRZLY was big enough to fit the ten of them in the back why Valentino drove the APC over skyways and crumbling ruins of Feros, heading towards a destination some fifty klicks away. It had taken them almost two hours to reach the location, and Shepard was glad when they had reached the area, opening up the crew door and finding herself looking at yet another dilapidated Prothean building with some rugged hard tents that were marked with the Serrice University logo upon them.

"Stacy, Garrus, Elias, Hicks, and Asha? Stick my the APC and see if we can find some sort of Project Lead or Expedition manager." Shepard called out, looking at the building that the hard shell tents were placed in. "The rest of us? We're walking into the crumbling building to see if we can get directions for Dr. T'soni." Shepard was a little surprised to see that Hicks and Vakarian practically fist-bumped one another immediately right inside the APC; were they friends? Not that she was complaining, as Shepard had been trying to mix everyone up so that they could learn to work together as a team, but if friendships were forming, so much the better. The former Blackwatch member Garrus Vakarian was rated as an expert sniper, and Hicks was no slouch himself. If she wasn't careful, those two would probably be setting up a shooting gallery somewhere. If that happened, she was joining in.

Shepard led her team out, heading towards the building while Stacy Valentino went for the tent area. She gave Stacy a quick nod as they moved out, seeing Tela right behind her, a feeling of awe coming through her bond as Shepard looked up at the building itself. To call it a skyscraper was an understatement; the thing seemed to be over a thousand stories tall! She couldn't even begin to guess its purpose, but if so much of the planet was covered with buildings like this… just how powerful were the Protheans? And what happened to them? Perhaps she could ask this Dr. T'soni.

"Goddess! How are we suppose to find them in there?" Ulla D'veora asked, looking up at the building. "I hope the elevators work!"

"Seriously! Prothean stairs were not made for Quarian legs." Rahe'Tarram agreed, and that almost had Shepard ask how the Quarian knew that; had she been in another Prothean ruin, or was she basing it off the few stairs they had taken?

"Least the El-Tee ain't trying to blow this one up." Corporal Jeanette Vasquez pointed out, making Shepard grunt. "Ever foot-raced out of a meltdown? I don't recommend it, man."

"Visor? Activate and sweep for signs of tracks and movements." Shepard told her Kuwashii visor, the VI-driven device turning on, and immediately complying. She stepped into the building, and saw the glow of identified tracks appearing on the floor, almost all of them heading towards the the left-hand corridor she found themselves in, heading towards a darkened portion of the building. "Visor, low light vision." She was now able to see the corridor's depth as well as the identified foot tracks heading deeper into the building. "Okay, looks like most everyone goes this way. Let's see if we can find us some treasure hunters." Shepard led her team deep into the building, finding the corridor dumping into a large room dominated by debris and pillars. She walked in and looked up as the incoming daylight, and was shocked to see that the building was hollow! About half of the building had its middle missing, built to have an opened roof at something like a thousand stories tall! The architect could only marvel at the design ingenuity to have a building from swaying and cracking its support beams. How had the Protheans done it?

_It is amazing,_ Tela thought to her, obviously feeling Shepard's wonderment.

"I see that this place amazes you as much as I."

The sound of an Asari's voice pulled Shepard's attention to two women who stood a respectful distance away, both of their hands clasped in front of them. She looked at the Asari woman, with little in the way of facial markings on her, denoting her youth, and the human woman with some Asian features who stood with her, looking to be a college student herself. Both were dressed in Serrice University work clothing, much like what Mark had been dressed in, utilitarian clothes that were dependable and durable. The human woman sported a small clear cup breather over her mouth and nose, and carried a small canister on her side, obviously to keep the dust from harming her from prolonged exposure.

"I'm thinking… hotel, apartments, or business." Shepard guessed, craning her head back up again, looking at the interior of the building, looking at the many levels with their partition to keep someone from falling down the buildings' well. "You see megablocks like this on Earth and some of our major colonies. I just can't believe how they can get the structural support to withstand the pressure of sway and tectonic movement without a center beam to tie it in. The corner supports must be massive!"

"Are you an engineer?" The human woman asked, curious.

"I went to Annapolis, and graduated with a degree in Architectural Engineering and Design." Shepard replied. "But what I am is a Counsel Agent. My name is Jane Shepard." That had the human woman gaping, while the Asari bowed deeply.

"It is always a pleasure to meet a Specter." The Asari stood back up. "I had heard from our Project Manager that there would be a human woman looking for me. I am Doctor Liara T'soni. This," she turned to indicate the human woman standing next to her, "is my research assistant, Bastila Shan. How may I help the Office of Special Tactics?"

"Thank the Gods, civility!" Shepard exclaimed, making Vasquez grunt. "I was sent here in the hopes of convincing you to come with me, Doctor. I know that this is a funded project with Serrice University, and that you are actively in a dig, but… we found something, and you came recommended by the Executor of Special Tactics." That had the Asari look shocked, and Shepard watched as both she and Bastila shared a glance.

"When you say that you found something, what is it that you may have found?"

"We don't know yet." Shepard explained. "A ship out in the Attican Traverse was planet-fracking and came across an object of alien origin. We humans might be new to the galactic scene, but we do tend to know if something is of Turian or Asari origin. We assume it to be a Prothean device, but we do not have the knowledge, equipment, or know-how to deal with such situations. Thus, I am here for you. Interested?"

"I am… intrigued." The Doctor replied, and again, both her and Bastila shared a glance. That seemed odd. "I will have to notify both the Project Manager and the University of this development before I can excuse us from our research."

"'Us?'" Shepard noted the pluralization. The two women in front of her looked a little bashful. "Ms. Shan? Are you a Protheanologist as well?"

"I am ten credits shy from my degree." Bastila replied, looking a little nervous, her eyes darting back to Dr. T'soni, panic evident. "Liara and I have been working together to catalog Prothean art and architecture!" Shepard couldn't help but notice that the woman almost sounded frantic. "I know Third and Fourth Era transcriptions, and I…"

_They are _je'dai_. _The thought came to her from Tela as Bastila continued giving out credentials and accomplishments, and Shepard looked to the Specter, her mouth almost dropping open. _I am sure of it. They're afraid you'll tear them apart. If it is early in the bonding process, it can be… traumatic to physically pull them apart. Take them both so we can get some use out of them_.

"Okay, Ms. Shan!" Shepard held out her hands in a stopping motion, the woman halting in mid-sentence. "I got the resume. You want to come. We're not exactly hurting for space."

"Thank you!" Bastila practically squeaked, and Dr. T'soni looked relieved as well. It was as if their whole attitude had changed together, and at the same time. Was it the same for her and Tela? Would she panic at the thought of being pulled apart? It would be something she would have to ask later. "I'll go pack!" Bastila turned to leave, her voice giddy as she hurried off to wherever they had been working.

"Doctor, a moment of your time." Shepard motioned the Asari Protheanologist to take a short walk with her, the Doctor nodding as they stepped away from the group, standing near the center of the building's well. "How long have you two been bonded? _Je'dai_?" The question obviously took Dr. T'soni back considering the shocked look on her face; obviously, the Asari wouldn't think that a human would know the term, or how to recognize it. "I saw the panic in both of your faces. Your assistant was practically ready to cry on the spot at the thought of you leaving. Which is why I'm bringing you both."

"Thank you, Agent Shepard…" The Thessian began, but Shepard cut her off.

"I'm doing it for two reasons. One, I don't need you to have a breakdown, too." She pointed out, making the Asari stand mollified. "Two… I'd like to know more as well. You represent the only other bonded couple I know of between Asari and humans."

"The only other? Oh!" Dr. T'soni looked over Shepard's shoulder, looking at the group behind her. "The Matriarch? The Matron doesn't seem to be interested in our conversation."

"Yes. So… I understand." Shepard replied, nodding her head. "If you don't mind me saying, you lack a lot of facial markings for a Maiden. How old are you?"

"I am but a hundred galactic years of age." The Protheanologist replied shyly, and Shepard felt alarm tremble through her own bond, Tela Vasir obviously catching the conversation.

_Is that bad? A hundred?_ Shepard knew that Asari could live for an incredible length of time.

_Technically, she would be… approximately your age, though perhaps she is more mature, being a Doctor and researcher as oppose to some Maiden sleazing it up in some club._ Tela responded, her voice but a whisper. _Bonding at that age… is practically unheard of. The pureblood is either foolish or foolishly in love. Either way, we need to keep an eye on both of them. I'll explain later_.

"You… are talking to her." The Thessian realized, bringing Shepard's attention back to the Protheanologist. "I cannot do that because I am a Maiden. I must admit, I am envious."

"All you can do is feel each other?" Shepard asked, curious. The thought of only 'feeling' Tela seemed… a little depressing. The pulse inside of her agreed and approved of her line of thinking, making Shepard smile; she found the bond comforting, and it was slowly growing as a part of her. "We'll talk later. I should let you go and gather your things, Doctor. Don't forget your fedora or your bullwhip."

"Why? Am I expecting to outrun a boulder?" The Asari asked, completely straight-laced, and Shepard had to keep herself from laughing out loud; evidently, Bastila Shan had gotten her to watch the movies.

"I think I'm gonna like you, Doc."

* * *

It was near the middle of the night as the GRZLY returned to the CDF _Spirit of Vengeance_, carrying two more additions, as well as a personal case filled with research datapads and literature. 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard was glad that Archeologists didn't need much in the way of equipment; evidently, both Doctor Liara T'soni and Assistant Bastila Shan had specialized Omnitools that possessed several functions for their line of research. When she had looked into the case, all she had seen were datapads, OCD's, and spare clothing. She guessed that the researchers were use to traveling light, or that was all they owned.

"So, she's seriously seen 'Indiana Jones'?" Corporal Jeanette Vasquez asked Shepard, her voice loud enough for everyone to hear her inside the APC. "I'm calling her Indy! It's too hard not to pass that up! She's a Professor and an Archeologist! We just get her a jacket, a hat, and a whip, and she's perfect!"

"Are the humans still going on about some movie?" Elias Korvan asked Garrus Vakarian, who merely grunted. "I made the mistake of asking Royce about some guy called 'Crocodile', and he went on for two… hours… straight."

"What's a crocodile?" Garrus asked.

"I have no idea, except it seems to eat humans." The Turian Commando replied, shaking his head. "Humans are strange."

"I heard that!" Shepard called out, though there was no admonishment in her voice. "And Crocodile Dundee's amazing! Royce hears you, he'll pull out his big-ass Bowie knife!"

"I know what we can watch!" Rahe'Tarram nar Sofis announced, her voice giddy.

"NO!" Both Garrus and Elias shouted at the same time, making Jondum Bau snicker. Shepard merely looked to Tela Vasir, who was hiding a smile.

_Fleet and Flotilla._ The Asari told her through the bond. _No Turian in his right mind will watch it. It has a Turian/Quarian romance to it. It is a cute movie._

"Well, in the spirit of cultural unity and learning, everyone gets to pick a movie, and we'll have movie night." Shepard announced, and everyone was looking at her. "What? I swear I won't pick _Shanxi Strikes_ or _Heaven's Burning_." Those were quite popular with humans, one being about the human victory on the ground on Shanxi, the other being about the war in the sky of Shanxi, in which some ditz of an actress actually played her mother. Shepard wondered if MGM even had rights to use her mother's name in a movie. No one certainly asked her permission or her approval.

"As long as it isn't _Blasto_ or _Blasto Returns_." Tela replied, her voice disgusted. "I want to fry that jellyfish." That got a choir of cheers and approvals throughout the APC. "I liked the _Star Wars_ movies. Except for that one stupid fish creature from the first one. The one that talked like an idiot."

"_What? Me'sa speaks!_" Shepard cued in her best impression of Jar-Jar Binks, making all the humans groan; no one liked Jar-Jar. "Why can't I get a Salarian to make me a lightsaber. That would be so… fucking… awesome. I want to be a Jedi."

"_Janey, do I need to tell everyone how I caught you _trying_ to make your own lightsaber out of an Eezo crystal and a Omnitool?_" Master Chief Stacy Valentino piped up from the driver's seat, making all the humans laugh, as well as Tela Vasir. Shepard just blushed.

"Okay, now I want to know what it is they are talking about." Rahe piped up. "What's a Jedi?"

"An Order of galactic peacekeepers, guardians of peace and justice who used the Force instead of biotics." Bastila Shan replied. "Like Specters, except they had energy swords that could deflect blaster fire and cut through anything. Did the Eezo crystal and Omnitool idea work, Agent Shepard? I've already got one-half covered." Much to everyone's surprise save Dr. T'soni, the human woman glowed blue.

"Holy shit! A human biotic!" Sergeant Dwayne Hicks announced, surprised. "I thought that the Corporations controlled all of you?" Shepard was surprised as well; human biotics were very rare, and as Hicks said, she was under the impression that the Corporations had them all.

"Most." Bastila replied sadly, looking uncomfortable. "Why do you think I was in an Asari University on Thessia? I did not want to join 'the Dark Side'." The subject was obviously not a pleasant one for the human researcher. "I was… spirited away by my mother to an Asari Matriarch who was sympathetic to my plight when I was younger."

"Shit… you must be from Singapore." Shepard realized, remembering of an incident where a transport ship's Eezo core had gone critical, dusting a good chunk of the Singapore slums. That had happened a few years before she was born, around '51; the researcher looked to be about the right age? She didn't remember much except that a good many people died, and a lot of children had been born with bad mutations. Yet about 5% of pregnant women at the time had given birth to children who were biotically capable, and the Alliance Government had snatched them up when their powers manifested, an answer to the Asari and other threats to humanity. Obviously, Bastila Shan had avoided that dragnet, her mother obviously not giving away her daughter to the Corporations. If that were the case, then she was one of the lucky few. "I don't think I've ever seen a human biotic." She smiled, looking at the researcher. "I can't wait to tell Royce we have a fucking Jedi!"

* * *

As soon as everyone was boarded the CDF _Spirit of Vengeance,_ 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard instituted 'movie night' in the common room where the crew normally took its meals. There was a fifteen hour trip to the Hades Nexus Cluster, and she grabbed her Alliance Blue beret and had everyone write down a movie on a piece of scrap and put it into her beret. After she had gotten twenty-three pieces of scrap paper with a single movie title, she went in front of the Marines and Specters, and made an act of hunting for the movie selection.

"The odds are eschewed, of course." Daeporm Norban pointed out, the Salarian Specter sitting on the bench at the table. "With nine humans out of a possible twenty-three choices, the statistics of a human movie being selected is 39.13% chance."

"What a blimin' mood-killer." Captain Royce Mason pointed out, shaking his head. "This is tradition! The rules go that you _have_ to watch the movie, no matter what it is. If I'm goin' to get stuck watchin' an Elcor drama, you can suffer a human flick that might last two hours."

"It's a good thing I didn't pick a Hanar movie, then." The Drell Specter Kya Drang pointed out, her rocky voice amused. "Even I can't stand them."

"Thank you." Tela Vasir replied sincerely. "I sat through a Hanar movie, once. It should be made illegal under the Articles of Cruelty and Illegal Punishment!"

"Okay! I'm picking!" Shepard pulled out a slip of scrap paper, and made a show of pulling it open, as if she were reading the Academy Award winner. "And this night's entertainment is going to be…" She actually read it, and then she busted out laughing. "Oh, this is rich! Daeporm, despite your 39% odds? We got a solo vote here that I'm sure the Turians are going to _cry_ about!"

"Spirits, no!" Garrus Vakarian immediately pouted. "Don't tell me…"

"Fleet and Flotilla!" Shepard waved the piece of paper like a banner, to the excitable laughter of Rahe'Tarrem nar Sofis and the groans of the duel-toned Turians. "And you got to watch it! You promised!"

"I'm so posting this to my Captain on the Sofis!" Rahe announced, cuing up her red Omnitool. "Forcing Turians to watch romance? Priceless!" Almost everyone in the common room chuckled at that, while Garrus Vakarian, Elias Korvan, and Cavius Raminion all exchanged looks akin to prisoners about to walk on Death Row. Shepard was too busy laughing to give them some words of encouragement. Even if the movie sucked, forcing three Turians to squirm and wince through it would be worth it. Pop would get a kick out of that.

"I've already downloaded it!" Master Chief Stacy Valentino called out, getting most of the humans to whoop, obviously enjoying the displeasure of the Turians. "You were right, Janey; we needed a movie night."

"Concern; I believe the Turians may commit suicide out of shame." Naor pointed out, making Shepard laugh even harder, the monotone voice of the Elcor Bull Specter making it even funnier. "Humor; Garrus will no longer have to share chocolate with Rahe, as she will inherit it all after his self-inflicted demise." Even the Salarians couldn't help sniggering at it, while Cur Dileen was hacking away like an asthmatic, the Volus version of a laugh.

"Spirits, why did I agree to this mission?" Cavius called up to the ship's ceiling, beseeching the Turian Gods. "I could have been at home with my mate, eating _korvne_ and watching _brekbaz_. No, I just wanted to go out in the black just so I could be forced to watch bad movies and be laughed at!"

"Aww! Someone hand the Turian a dextro-hankie!" Corporal Jeanette Vasquez called out, and this time, everyone was laughing.

"Now I'm curious about the other choices." Shepard admitted, with Corporal-Technician Bill Hudson calling out _cheating!_ "Hey! It's all in good fun! I want to see people squirm." She pulled out another piece of paper, and read it. "To Light A Candle? What the hell?" Shepard looked up, and saw a five-finger hand raised. "Kya? How are we even suppose to know what it is about?"

"You'll just have to watch and find out." Kya Drang answered cryptically. Shepard just shook her head, and pulled out another one.

"Crocodile Dundee." _Royce! _Every human exclaimed, the Australian-born man holding his hands out in acceptance. "Sha… sha'mesh…" Shepard tried reading the next one without much luck. "Is this even in Galactic?"

"It's _Sha'meshi'sora_." Asha T'vara answered. "It's an action flick. It's about a Huntress gunning Eclipse Sisters."

"I can live with that." Shepard shrugged, pulling another. "Oh! Here's a Turian one… Blood In The Sand?" That had Elias grunt. "I think I've heard of this one, about the Krogan Rebellion, right?" She pulled out another. "Ah, a science title, obviously Salarian… A Race For The Cure?"

"It's about the men who planted the Genophage on Tuchanka." Jondum Bau called out. "STG Infiltrators. Neither confirm nor deny it happened."

"Of course." Shepard snorted, shaking her head. "Let's see… Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark! A classic… To Prey Upon The Night Winds… what?" Shepard looked over to see Tela Vasir smiling, obviously her choice. "Sounds like a horror flick to me… ah! My choice… Hey!" Stacy had snuck up on her and stole the paper from her hands. "Auntie! Give that back!"

"I want to see what badass movie Humanity's First Specter has picked out!" The Master Chief laughed as she ran up onto the table as Shepard tried to get her, bounding over and going around Naor. "Okay, Janey! Since you've been embarrassing everyone else, now it's your turn, brat." The older human woman laughed as she handed the paper to Cavius Raminion, the Specter Instructor taking the paper with relish.

"I'm liking this traditions already." The Turian Specter grinned with his mandibles, opening up the paper. "I… don't get it." The Turian looked at the paper, confused. "It's a series of directions. North by Northwest?"

"Oh! That is a good movie!" Sergeant Rita Vrataski agreed immediately. "Hitchcock was a genius! Nice drama movie, good suspense, great McGuffin."

"I wouldn't have pick you for a spy thriller." Royce admitted. "But that is a good movie. That scene on Mount Rushmore is a classic."

"Are we going to watch my movie or what?" Rahe'Tarram squirmed in her seat, obviously excited. "Otherwise I'm changing it to _Blasto_!"

"Auntie! Play! Now!"

* * *

"With sincerity; that is three hours of my life that shall never be returned to me again."

"I agree, who the hell wrote that movie? The dialog was terrible! '_I'm as free as the dust on a solar wind?'_"

"I'm never listening to a Quarian singing again. EVER!"

"You are all haters."

"I'm agreein' with the Turians on this one; never again."

"Finally, (breath) I can turn on my optics again. (Breath) Is it finally over?"

"Considering how bad Turian breath can be, am surprised Shalei did not die of infection _immediately_. Scientific wonder."

"Must… fall… on… own… sword…"

"It wasn't that bad…"

"That's because you're half-Turian already, Asha."

"I so hate you all!"

"Kalahira, Goddess of the Oceans and the Afterlife, please save me from what I have seen."

"_I've taken off my mask… now you can touch meeeee!_"

"Hudson! Your accent is giving me a migraine! And your singing's even worse than the Quarian's! If possible!"

"I'm goin' to suck start my shotgun in the loo."

"Movie night… not my best idea."

* * *

1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard sat in a chair in her quarters, smoking a clove cigarette as Tela Vasir sat in another chair, the both of them looking at Dr. Liara T'soni and Bastila Shan. Their recent acquisitions sat on her bed, both nervous as Shepard and Tela looked at them both. Shepard took another drag of her clove cigarette, dumping the ashes into a make-shift ashtray that was once a water bottle, ashes floating in the inch or so of water left at its bottom.

"Doctor," Shepard began, her tone conversational, "first, I would like to thank you for agreeing to come with us. I can only imagine that a fleet of strangers coming up to you with a mission and next to no information must be rather alarming. I'm honestly surprised that you agreed to it as fast as your did, considering that you were already in a dig. Or… expedition."

"It is more common that you expect, thought something like this has never directly happened to me." Dr. T'soni explained. "Sometimes caches and data stores are found, and Archeologists such as myself may be called away to make sure that a site is secured. Fourth Era Protheans were… quite paranoid, and left many traps and security systems. I am familiar with a goo many of them, and a bulk of the research we've brought detail the possibilities of such issues. Both myself and Bastila have been trained for such things, and we know what to recognize."

"I hadn't any idea that Protheanology could be dangerous." Shepard admitted, and the thought of Indiana Jones came back up. "Makes me double-glad we brought the both of you, then." She felt the pulse of her bond flash a little, a comforting thought that Tela shared with her, agreeing. "Now, I don't know how you work, but this is a military operation; we go in first. Each and every one of us is trained and experienced, but we are going to be walking into a possible derelict ship that may be catastrophically damaged, with the possibility of a very harmful biocontaminate species present. When we've cleared the ship and located the device, that is when we will call upon your expertise. It is not my habit to put civilians into harms' way, especially since you both are specialists that we cannot afford to replace due to oversight or stupidity."

"We understand." The Doctor replied with a nod of her head, Bastila doing the same. "It is similar with many digs and expeditions; the threat of smugglers, slavers, and treasure-seekers is always a real threat. I am trained to defend myself biotically, but I will be realistic; I have had only a little training for normal situations. This does not sound like either."

"Good, I'm glad we see eye-to-eye on this." Shepard was relieved at the Asari Protheanologists' acceptance; she had been afraid that the good Doctor might get it in her head that she was some wannabe-Commando out on a hunt for fame and glory… _huh, that was a weird thought for me to have._ Shepard mused, Tela obviously rubbing off on her. Was that even possible? "We will give you armor and some side-arms; we will protect you, but I like having back-up plans for those eventualities that we can't always expect. I'd rather you have a pistol you'll never need than cowering in a corner."

"Yes, I am familiar with the human concept of the Right to Self-Defense." The Protheanologist replied, nodding to Bastila. "We shall have no issues following your orders, Agent Shepard. But the reverse must be true as well; if you encounter something Prothean, it would be wise for you to listen to us. There are a good many dangers in Archeology, especially in the field of Prothean Studies. In military matters, I will defer to your judgment. In Prothean, you need to defer to mine."

"Easily acceptable." Shepard nodded with a smile, glad that the issue had been handled. "This is why Specters have specialists; it's impossible for us to know everything. You're an expert in your field, and I will treat you as such. If you tell me not to touch something, I will comply." She looked over to Tela, who nodded as well, the bond between then calm; nothing more to add. "I… do want to talk about something personal with the both of you, and… it's not easy for me."

"That you are _je'dai_?" Dr. T'soni asked, getting both Shepard and Tela nodding. Shepard felt nervous talking about it with strangers, yet it was as she said to Dr. T'soni on Feros; they were the only other couple she had ever met that she knew about when it came to Asari-human bonding. "_Dhan'rana_, are you comfortable with talking about this?" The question had been directed at Bastila, and Shepard remembered how the bonded couple couldn't 'speak' to one another like Tela and she could through their own bond. Was it really because a matter of age?

"It is like Agent Shepard stated, it isn't very easy for us." Bastila replied a little shyly, looking embarrassed. "Our race, humans, have long dealt with bigotry and racism, and it is sadly a very real thing for us. Considered that when I was born, we weren't even aware of other intelligent species in the galaxy, we have barely scratched the surface in the terms of either understanding non-humans, or even trying to relate. It was… hard for me, as I'm sure it was hard for you, Specter."

"Please, call me Jane." Shepard told the human researcher. "And I struggle with it everyday, sadly. Yet somehow, Tela has managed to see pass that, offering her patience as well as her compassion." She smiled to the Thessian beside her, giving her body a thought of affection towards it, making it glow warmly. "It's just nice to know… to know that not everyone might see what we have in the same light." That had been directed at Bastila Shan, who nodded. "You are the first people we've told. I… I haven't even let my friends know yet. I'm afraid of what they might think or say. I shouldn't be, but…"

"You had it differently from me, I think." The researcher spoke after Shepard's hesitation. "I was practically raised on Thessia, among the Asari. Sometimes I feel that I understand them better than my own people. Yet I also worried about telling another human that I lived among Asari and fell in love with one. Considering I have lived among them longer than I did humans, you would think that wouldn't be the case." The woman from Singapore smiled, though there was no real joy behind it, something in between a grimace and a tightening of the facial muscles. "If it's hard for me, I can only imagine how much harder it is for you, Jane, raised among humans with their thoughts and their beliefs. Were you raised Alliance?"

"Born on a military ship, raised on a military ship, lived on military ships, and the only time I lived on a planet was when I went to OCS in Annapolis on Earth." Shepard explained. "I hated living on a planet. The air was dirty, there was trash and filth everywhere, and people seemed to have nothing else better to do that cause problems and get into trouble. No order or structure what-so-ever." That had Tela laughing, her bond glowing with humor and understanding. "All the amazing things that I ever heard about Earth were a bit of a joke, sadly; tourist traps, dilapidated, or completely forgotten about. The worst was watching them tear apart Lady Liberty for its copper, claiming that it was no longer relevant and that it was too old to keep maintaining. At least I got to see it."

"I would have like to have seen the Statue of Liberty." Bastila replied quietly. "I heard that so many monuments are gone now, the Corporations making their own edifices towards capitalism and commerce. Who wants to see a statue of a Captain of Industry when we use to have temples dedicated to the Gods of Old?" Shepard grimaced, knowing exactly what the human researcher was referring to; the great statue of Aldrich Killian that stood in the center of Central Park of Old New York City, spanning some 100 meters tall. Seriously, who needed a statue of a man who invented modern genemods? There certainly wasn't a statue of Walter Reed anywhere, was there? "So, how long have you been in _je'dai_? Liara and I have been bonded for well over a year."

"Um, a full day." Shepard replied, sheepishly, to the amazement of Bastila and the amused look of Dr. T'soni.

"She hasn't experiences _siari_ yet." The Protheanologist told the researcher, who merely blushed and smiled. _Siari_? Shepard knew there was a religious belief behind it, meaning 'unity' or some such thing. Tela hadn't subscribed to it, so neither had she.

"Someone's in for a treat. Best… thing… ever." Bastila replied in a sing-song voice, trying to hide her smile.

"What are they talking about?" Shepard asked Tela Vasir, who was smiling herself, much in a manner of a cat who had caught the canary.

"No! Don't ruin it!" The researcher exclaimed, blushing furiously. "Let her find out the proper way, Agent Vasir. Trust me on this."

_Hmm, I'm having a very seducing idea, Jane._ Tela thought to her, and the pulse of the bond inside of her began to burn brightly, and it took Shepard a moment to recognize that the emotion that was pulsing from it was hormone-driven desire. _Way too many occupants in this room if you are truly curious, _Dhan'rana. By the growing pulse of desire that was coming from Tela, Shepard felt a blush working its way to her cheeks, hard.

"I think we need to take our leave, Bastila." Dr. Liara T'soni said, amused, the human researcher giggling. Did Asari possess no shame? Shepard had a hard time controlling the blush that was burning her cheeks, as well as her own growing curiosity and bodily reaction to the bond's pulsing emotions, inciting her own desires. She barely noticed the Protheanologists leaving the room as Tela Vasir stood from her chair, gently pulling Shepard up from her own, having her slowly pant.

"It's a good thing that's an Asari bed." Tela said seductively as she pushed Shepard towards it, causing her to fall back on it as the Thessian crawled on top of her. "A human-made one wouldn't survive."

"Oh, Gods. You're diabolical." Shepard panted, losing control not to terror, but to passion. "What are you going to do to me?" She couldn't help but have her voice shiver with the question, the excitement and uncertainty mixing with one another, the bond within her soothing her fears while inciting her curiosity and lust.

"I think your exact word were 'make me yours'." The Asari Agent smile as blue lips went onto her own, the bond intensifying as Shepard felt herself shiver and gasp, her body reacting quite pleasantly to the Thessian who was now pressing into her, physically and mentally. "Still want that?"

"Y-yes-s." Shepard replied with a shiver, her emotions merging with Tela's, matching with the Thessian's.

* * *

A/N: According to the Codex, Zhu's Hope and ExoGeni established itself on Feros in 2178, a full year into the future. I smudged that, and made it 2168.

Making a non-war torn Zhu's Hope proved an interesting challenge, so the only change I made was that it wasn't painted in Colonist Blood red.

Bastila Shan as a biotic is obvious. Honestly, she was a last-minute addition that has some potential. Especially if that Eezo crystal idea works… And yes, I will probably call her a 'Jedi' throughout the entire story, if only because it's funny. If anyone else understands what the hell 'Battle meditation' is suppose to be, I'm make a biotic equivalent!

Singapore Incident; barely mentioned in ME 1, downwind communities were exposed to dust-free Eezo from faulty containers in Singapore, unlike the 'accidental' explosions of ships in other locations. This is where Kaidan Alenko supposedly was exposed in utero. 30% of children were born deformed, but about 70% were born fine. Some 10% showed biotic potential. Though the game doesn't mention it, I was always under the impression that human biotics must be extremely rare, as only a 10% yield of exposure would lead to proper biotic children after an accident or incident, of which I believe there were only four mentioned. For the purpose of this story, the Singapore incident was a ship's drive core being exposed, dousing a majority of the 'poor' slums of Singapore, exposing over 250,000 people to Eezo radiation and dust.

Fleet and Flotilla actually comes out eight years later, in 2185. But I like making Garrus squirm.

I think this is the first chapter that was more or less pure fluff; I wanted to work on relationships and making the team like one another. 'Movie night' was something we did on deployments, where everyone did pick a movie, and we watched them all before we recycled them. North by Northwest was indeed one of my choices, and is a great movie.

Aldrich Killian is the CEO of Advanced Idea Mechanics, the antagonist of the Extremis Story Arc of Iron Man, and the villain of Iron Man 3. In my 'verse, Extremis was the progenitor of genemods.

Walter Reed is credited for inventing the vaccine for malaria. There's a reason the Walter Reed Army Medical Center is in DC; Washington DC use to be a malarial swamp, and I believe at least one president was sickened by it.

Siari - The Asari belief of unity, I've made it where it has two implied meanings; philosophical, and coital.


	6. 6: Dark Dead Space

Disclaimer: BioWare owns Mass Effect. 20th Century Fox owns the _Alien_ franchise. EA owns _Dark Space_.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I think I've teased you enough with the set-up. Welcome to the USG _Ishimura_. Please keep all extremities attached.

**Hades Nexus Cluster, February 22, 2177**

The CDF _Spirit of Vengeance _arrived in the Hades Nexus Cluster, FTL'ing to the Yamlat System at a full-burn, arriving at the planet simply known as Aegis VII. 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard stood on the bridge of the _Spirit_, alongside Captain Veraponia Belltumus, the female Turian officer standing at the ship's CIC in a relaxed position as the Turian crew operated their stations at a efficiency level that Shepard found quite favorable. She was hard-pressed to admit it, but when it came to Navies, the Turian Hierarchy was damn good at their jobs, very professional, and dedicated to the cause. She hated to admit it, but they were very impressive, and obviously more skilled than their equivalent human operators. It was a hard fact to swallow, yet she had told Captain Belltumus just that, showing her respect for the Hierarchy and its warriors. The news had gone over well, though there was a bit of a _'of course'_ cavalier attitude attached to it that Shepard didn't exactly appreciate. Still, the Turian sailors were pleased that Humanity's First Specter wasn't exactly some bigoted bitch, and a few had come up to her and told her just that, though in more polite terms. Some had even seen her interview, and expressed their pleasure in watching Shepard tear into Ann Coulter, showing herself to be, what they called, a 'female of the galaxy'. Shepard took that to be a compliment, and thanked them.

"Ah, we have found your ship, Agent. The _Ishimura_." Captain Belltumus called out, opening up a display screen by the station that Shepard was operating on, reading through data and scans that the Turian CIC operators were gathering on the Yamlat System. What Shepard found was dead space; a term that the Alliance Navy use to indicate that no signal or operational systems were available. No signals were coming from the USG _Ishimura_, the scans from the _Spirit_ painting a bleak picture. It seemed that the vessel, the Alliance's first planet-fracker, easily its largest, had arrived at the orbit of Aegis VII and done what it was made to do; slowly cracking the crust from a planet into pieces to collect as much resources and materials from the planet as possible without having to dig. Shepard was pretty sure that the Counsel wouldn't approve of such a practice, even though the Alliance had been using planet-frackers for about five decades. Still, the Dreadnaught-sized vessel hung over the remains of the Martian-sized planet, a new ring of debris coalescing around the planet, much larger than any planetary ring that any gas giants in the galaxy could boast of. The _Ishimura_ itself was buried in the ring, using some sort of gravity-drive suspension system that would keep it from colliding with the newly-formed astroids, as well as being able to drag chunks of rock from the belt and into its processing systems like the whaling ships of old. She knew that a planet-fracker could theoretically collect some 98% of collectable material from gathered earth from a planet, dumping the rest of the debris into a rock cloud that would probably be absorbed by the system's sun or turning the system into a billards' table with asteroids, comets, meteorites, and hazards. Typical Corporate thinking; take away whats profitable, and dump the rest for someone else to deal with for maximum profit.

"Looks like most of the ship's systems are off-line." Shepard mentioned, looking at the power output levels. "Some are still operational; it hasn't fallen into the planet, at least. Gravity drive is still functional, and it looks like life support and electrical is running. But the rest is a Godsdamn mess."

"Can you boot-up sequence from here?" The Captain of the _Spirit_ asked, curious.

"No. No ship system in the Alliance has any remote access points; we're too afraid of 'outside' interference." She told Captain Belltumus, who understood what she was saying; humanity was afraid that an alien might come by and shut down their ship from underneath them. "If we want anything to work, someone's got to go on board and flip the switches. That'll be fun on a ship that size. I just hope the tram systems' working, otherwise it's going to be a shit load of walking." The Turian chuckled at that. "I'll prep my team for insertion on the shuttle. Do we have any recon probes or communication probes that we can launch? That debris field is nasty."

"We have a communication hub that we can send." Captain Belltumus allowed, looking thoughtful for a moment. "It allows for tight-beam communications, which will be hard to interrupt, and next to impossible to intercept. Expecting trouble?"

"I'm a human; I'm always expecting trouble." Shepard allowed, making the female Turian officer snort. "This is out in the butt end of nowhere, and it doesn't even look like this system was fully surveyed. Who knows if pirates, slavers, or Gods knows what else uses this system for its own devices. We've already got what looks to be an illegal mining operation on a planet that wasn't even given a full scan to the Citadel Department of Minerals and Resources for exploitation. My guess? CEC found a sweet little gold mine, and started stripping the fuck out of it before anyone caught wise. In a year or two, they'd be gone, and no one would be the wiser at a planet with huge chunks carved out of it. At least the planet itself doesn't seem to be worth anything. Bad atmosphere, poor gravity, light pressure, no water, no habitable zones… it's a rock no one would be interested in except for its intrinsic wealth."

"And like a plague of Quarians, your human ship descended and started digging." Captain Belltumus pointed out, her tone not at all pleased. There was no doubt about it; this was going to hurt the Alliance.

"Looks like." There was no use defending the Concordance Extraction Corporation, the _Ishimura_, its crew, or even her species against the obvious. "I'll find out whatever I can from the ships' logs, probably task one of our Salarian data-miners for it. I don't want to be accused on either side for favoritism." That had the female Turian officer grunting.

"I… would not want to be in your position, now that I think about it." The Captain allowed, looking over to Shepard, her mandibles flicking out. "You are an interesting one, huma… _Specter_." Captain Belltumus corrected herself, obviously having made up her mind about Shepard. "Never thought I'd meet a human I thought worthy of respect."

"It's a hard road for both of us." Shepard told the Captain quietly, and she saw that the female Turian understood. "Still, someone's got to stand up and show what my race can be worth. I can think of a few better examples… and a whole hell of a lot worse ones. For what it's worth, I found that we've been pretty wrong about the Turians. I haven't seen you eat one baby… yet."

"It's still lunch time." The Captain of the _Spirit_ smiled with her mandibles, obviously knowing that Shepard was teasing her, and accepting it like a warrior. "Be back before dinner, we've got Krogan children on the menu."

"Sautéed or barbecued? I like mine fried." That got a laugh out of both women, and for a moment, it didn't matter that they were human or Turian; for a moment, they were sailor and Marine, on the same side. It was a moment that Shepard was proud to share. "I'll be in the cargo bay, and I'll call up when we're ready to deploy. Wish me luck, Captain."

"Who needs luck when you've got Turians at your back?"

* * *

"Alright, people! Everyone aboard! Hustle your asses like you've got somewhere to be!" Master Chief Stacy Valentino shouted, standing outside the crew door of the Turian shuttle that they would be taking to the USG _Ishimura_, a shuttle meant to fit twenty-five Turians, and would more than accommodate the twenty-four members of 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard's team. Shepard herself stood by her Auntie Val, armored in her Serrice Counsel armor, her weapons placed on her armor's hard point, and visor activated and running. Everyone was equally ready with their equipment and weapons as humans, Turians, Asari, Salarians, Quarian, Volus, Drell, and Elcor piled into the shuttle, with just enough space left over for it not to be cramped. She was impatiently waiting for everyone to board the vessel, her grandmother Ellen Ripley piloting the vessel along with a Turian co-pilot named Flight Lieutenant Tibevius Victonius, who didn't seem pleased with the fact that he would have to share a cockpit with a human. Shepard had put her foot down on the issue though; Ripley had been vetted by the Counsel, and held a Citadel Pilot's License that gave her clearance to fly Specter missions. Lieutenant Victonius, on the other hand, was only there because Ripley, while trained on simulators to fly the Turian V-23 Shuttle, hadn't actually flown a real one yet.

"We're loaded up, Janey." Stacy informed her as the last member of the team entered into the vessel, Captain Royce Mason giving Shepard a nod before stepping into the Turian craft. "Never thought I'd enter one of these buckets except as a prisoner-of-war." The N7 thumped the side of the V-23, its sharp angles and strange motifs a reminder that it wasn't a human craft. Shepard knew exactly what Stacy was saying; being a human in a Turian warship hadn't been on anyone's agenda, but being invited onto one, especially with the ability to walk out on one's own power, was simply mind-blowing.

"Well, the bucket's our ride, so find yourself a seat and enjoy." Shepard slapped Val on the shoulder, giving her Auntie a smile as Stacy maturely stuck her tongue back out on her. "Ripper? Last one's in, and I'm closing the hatch behind on me. Give Captain Belltumus the green light and my compliments."

"_Roger, Janey."_ Flight Officer Ellen Ripley replied from the cockpit of the Talon Personnel Delivery Shuttle, the V-23 powering up as Shepard closed the crew door behind her, the shuttle now hovering over the decking of the cargo by of the CDF _Spirit of Vengeance_. "_Spirit Actual? This is Talon 23, request permission to open cargo bay door and disembark." _Her grandmother's voice came over her earpiece radio connected to her Kuwashii visor.

"_Roger, Talon 23."_ Came the voice of Captain Veraponia Belltumus, her duel-toned voice calm in Shepard's ear. "_Permission granted, cargo bay doors opening now."_ The hum of an atmo barrier ached Shepard's ear as she heard the rumbling of a great metal door being opened, the blackness of space appearing before the viewer on a haptic screen by her seat at the door, which she immediately shut off, feeling sweat popping out of her pores. The bond inside of her sent a calming thought, which helped, and Shepard silently thanked Counsel Agent Tela Vasir, the bond helping her with her fear of the emptiness and blackness of space. _"Talon 23, you are free to disembark_."

"_Thank you, Spirit Actual. Thanks for putting up with us."_ Ripley returned. "_Marines and Agents? Grab your gullets and tuck your mullets, we're going into the void."_ A surge of panic hit Shepard again as she felt the shuttle launch forward, the thought of the emptiness just outside the metal walls of the shuttle looming large in her thoughts. She had to work very hard to control her breathing, feeling the sweat bursting out on her brow as her phobia threatened to take over. The bond pulsed within her, and Shepard was shocked to feel her fear leaking away, the bond pulling at the panic and terror that she had felt whenever she thought about the emptiness of space since she was eight years old. Tela… Tela was taking her fear away! Was it scaring her, too?

_The void holds no sway over me, dear one._ The voice of her companion came like a gentle whisper in her mind, calming, soothing. _I am simply sharing with you, giving you relief, and giving you my strength._

_I… thank you, Tela. _Shepard thought, and she meant it more than she could say. No longer did she feel the need to cry, vomit, scream, or pound at the walls of the shuttle. It was something she had always struggled with before, growing up on ships after her mother died. Pop had helped her, as had Royce and Stacy, but it was always like a living thing within her, ready to pounce at a moments' notice. Now… now she could fight back, now she was no longer alone. The terror and panic now was merely a discomforting feeling, a slight reminder that the environment outside was merely unpleasant. _Gods, you have no idea how grateful I am right now!_

_Well, if we ever see a Thresher Maw, you can return the favor._ Shepard was about to ask what a Thresher Maw was, but decided not to. If something scared a 600 year old Asari, it was probably worthy of fear. She would look into it later, she promised herself. Calming herself, she turned on the viewer, and saw that the image of Aegis VII and its new ring come into view as the shuttle made its way to the _Ishimura_.

"_USG _Ishimura, _USG _Ishimura_, this is Talon 23 calling on all frequencies. USG _Ishimura_, please come in."_ Ripley's voice came to Shepard's earpiece as the woman called out to the planet-fracker, still some one-thousand kilometers away and closing. _"Any station on this net, any station on this net, calling on all available frequencies to anyone on the USG_ Ishimura_, this is Talon 23 carrying Citadel personnel. Anyone please respond!" _The familiar crackle of empty comms came over Shepard's earpiece, indicating that either their was no response, or that anyone still aboard didn't have the signal strength to send back.

"Ripper? Save your breath until we penetrate that debris field." Shepard ordered, her tone sympathetic, knowing what it felt like to call for help without an answer back. "If all anyone's got is a RIG suit and an Omnitool, they won't have the power necessary to answer us."

"_Roger. We'll try again when we get closer."_ Ripley replied, her tone indicating that she wasn't happy with the decision. Had Ripley done the same on the _Nostromo_, Shepard wondered? Had she called and never gotten an answer, too? The terror reared its head for but a moment, but it was suppressed by her bond with Tela Vasir. Shepard tried to think about anything else than beating on a metal wall, looking out a viewport, screaming for rescue. Nothing was helping.

"Janey." Royce came up, his voice soft as his hand went to her shoulder, his brown eyes looking into her as she saw in his face understanding; Uncle Royce knew her fears, and was being there for her. "If anyone's still alive, we'll find them. And if there's a bloke that could understand what they're goin' through, it's you." Unfortunately, the shuttle wasn't big enough for their conversation to be private, but thankfully, Shepard saw that everyone was studiously paying attention to anything else but them. She nodded her head quickly, perhaps too quickly, closing her eyes and trying to quell the fear within her. Gods, you would think a Marine and a Specter would be fearless, or at least have conquered their own fears.

_Sadly, it isn't the case._ Tela informed her, her tone sweet yet sad. _We've learned how to fight through it and live with it. Your Uncle Royce understands this, as does your Aunt Stacy. We choose this path, and we take it, no matter the pitfalls and ugliness. We do it so others don't._

_I know_. Shepard replied lamely, though she did understand. _Can't fear take some time off, though? Vacation in some slimeball Class Gamma colony that needs a full envirosuit to survive? _The humor wasn't lost on the Asari, and she physically chuckled, getting an odd look from Dr. Liara T'soni at first, whose features smoothed when the nearby Asari Protheanologist made the connection.

"_Jane, we're approaching the debris field now."_ Ripley's voice came through both the radio earpiece and the intercom of the shuttle. _"We're going to take it slow. This shit's moving about like a flooded creek."_

"Do what you need to do, Ripper. Everyone else, hold on and pray to the Gods." Shepard called out, and somehow, the thought of fancy flying through a moving asteroid field beat back the fear. Danger never did frighten her; it was always the fear of what she couldn't fight against, what she couldn't touch. A rock, even a fast-moving one, could simply be avoided.

"_Fucking Christ! Victonius? Full power, port thrusters, and ready to engage forward guns."_ Ripley's voice came out strained, concentrating as the shuttle began making strange motions, swaying back and forth as inertia dampeners tried to correct what felt like a boat ride in river rapids. Shepard held onto a ceiling roof rung, letting her body sway with the vessel while her grip kept her steady, the sound of pebbles tinging off the shuttle's hull like rain peppering the interior with its sound a few times. It was hard to remember that in space, sound didn't exist the way it did in air; the thinner the volume, the poorer that sound waves did in it. So the sound of the miniature asteroids pinging off the shuttle was a bit of a startling fright for everyone inside the shuttle, the vessel meant to go from Frigate to planet, not fly about in minor space. Yet the asteroid field that encircled the planet Aegis VII made it impossible for the _Spirit of Vengeance _to approach the _Ishimura_. The V-23 was the only way that Shepard and her team was going to be able to make it in. The shuttle made more jogging motions, and there was another rain of rock that pattered against the hull, though it sounded like small fragmentation, probably the size of pebbles. Shepard was holding her breath, fretting at their chances. Even though everyone had their armored hard locked for EVA if needed, being caught in an asteroid field was a guarantee death sentence; no one would be pulling them out from it even if they had the capabilities. One or two of the strikes were loud, banging against the hull, sounding almost loud enough to puncture the shuttle. _"God damn it, Victonius! Blast those fucking rocks like we're playing 'Asteroids'!"_ Ripley growled over the radio, the shuttle jogging to the left, and then surging forward. _"Everyone hold on! This part's dicey!"_

The entire shuttle was knocked off course as something punched into its side.

Shepard felt herself slamming into the V-23's wall, knocking her breathless for a moment as a Turian-style klaxon rang out, and the deadly words '_hull breach_' began to sound out. Through her helmet, Shepard could hear the whistling of escaping atmo, the temperature of the interior of the shuttle dropping quickly as air and heat escaped through the puncture. As soon as she could catch her breath, her voice and her hands were at work.

"Anyone hit? Everyone check the person next to you!" Shepard called out, her hands going for the repair box that was attached to one wall in the shuttle, pulling out a stiffened piece of carbonite steel that was meant to make a quick patch. "Hicks! Give me a hand tacking this seal on!"

"On it!" Sergeant Dwayne Hicks pushed through the jostled bodies inside the shuttle as Shepard found the hole in the shuttle, no bigger than her thumb. Already the metal around it was frosted, and it was easy to see atmo leaking out. She slapped the steel right onto the hole, the square foot plug being pulled into place by the vacuum as she turned on her red Omnitool, and selected the 'tools' option, and went for 'weld'. Selecting 'spot', she began to weld small spot welds onto the corners of the steel, pinning it into place before removing her hand from the temporary seal, the tacks holding it into place. "El-Tee? I got the rest of this." Hicks told her as his Omnitool began to fully weld the steel into place.

"Ripper? How bad?" Shepard asked over her radio, looking over everyone. It seemed that, while everyone was rattled and disoriented, there didn't seem to be any injuries. They had gotten lucky.

"_It's like trying to dodge rocks the size of buildings out here, and the secondaries are too many to track! We took a hit in the fuel cell."_ Ripley's response had Shepard's blood run cold. "_We got more than enough to make it to the _Ishimura_, but making it back is not an option._"

"Fuck." Shepard swore, unable to believe their luck. They're only Godsdamn ride was now crippled? If the _Spirit _left, it would take them two days to make it to Citadel Space, and two days to come back with another shuttle! Perhaps another ship could be tasked out to deliver one, but that was still two days stuck on a derelict ship! _Calm yourself, Janey,_ she reminded herself, forcing herself to calm her breathing. _You had it worse on LV 426, with fewer people, worse guns, and no backup what-so-ever. You can power a ship up for everyone to survive. Shuttle's got supplies and rations for the dextros, and the human ship can feed the levos. This isn't that bad. Just hole up somewhere, do the investigation, and think smart. _"Take us in to the _Ishimura_ as quickly and as safely as you can, Ripper. Shut off the fuel as soon as you're able, and use docking thrusters when we're close enough. If we can seal the hole, perhaps we can find some H3 on the _Ishimura_ and tank up."

"_Yeah, that might work._" Ripley allowed. "_Sorry, Jane. This damn debris field is too much. Astronavigation and the VI prox sensor can't keep up with it. It's all eyeball and guess work now; the computer's shot."_ That had Shepard frown. If those were gone… then they were blind… and silent. They wouldn't be able to contact the _Spirit_. True, the Frigate had long-range scopes to visually see them, but they were essentially lost, unable to talk, fly, or return. Not a chain of events she liked finding her and her men in.

"Mining ship, Ripper; you use to work those." Shepard reminded both herself and her grandmother. "They probably got something on-board we could use, not to mention a few Salarians and a Quarian to hack it together. Put that together, they could probably install a warp drive on this sucker and we can avoid the whole damn thing!"

"_Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it."_ Ripley replied. _"We're past the worst, now. I've located the flight deck, and I'm bringing us in manually. Better hold on, kiddos, this could get rough."_

* * *

'Rough' was an understatement.

The Turian V-23 Shuttle, despite both pilots working together, had practically crashed into the flight deck of the USG _Ishimura_. Most of it wasn't their fault; the shuttles' astronavigation was shot, not to mention that the _Ishimura's_ flight deck was also off-line, the gravity tethers that would have assisted with an incoming vessel unresponsive. Both Flight Officer Ellen Ripley and Flight Lieutenant Tibevius Victonius had done the best they could under such circumstances, the V-23 losing response as they had to switch to manual docking thrusters inside the flight deck that was not meant for a shuttle their size. The vessel scraped the entrance that wasn't wide enough, and plowed into a few supports and grated walkways that were impossible to avoid as it came into a gentle collision with the dock of the flight deck. Both pilots began switching systems off on the V-23, conserving what fuel and power they had left in the shuttle in case it was needed, and to avoid an further damage to the systems. The shuttle rocked in its forced moorings as the people inside rocked with it, holding onto any purchases to keep them from being injured from the forced landing. When the Turian vessel finally screeched to a halt, 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard went into action.

"Crew door opening!" She shouted to the twenty-two people of various species that occupied the crew compartment of the V-23. "Helmets on until we can verify that life-support is viable!" With that, Shepard punched the 'unlock' button on the crew door, the gull-wing portal opening to give access to those inside the shuttle a means of egress. "Royce! Stacy! Front and center! Clear the docks!" Captain Royce Mason and Master Chief Stacy Valentino were out, bounding out of the Turian craft and onto some surviving portion of the _Ishimura's_ flight deck dock, their N7 Saber Assault Rifles out and ready as both N7's cleared the immediate vicinity, their weapons scanning left and right of the crew door for immediate hostiles. "Tela! Cavius! You're next!" The two identified Specters leapt out, Counsel Agent Tela Vasir wreathed in biotic energy as she held a Specter Gear Mark VIII Submachine gun in one hand, Specter Instructor Cavius Raminion right next to her as they cleared deeper into the dock with a Specter Gear Mark VIII Assault Rifle in his talons. Together, the two Specters and two N7's faced the interior of the ship, stalking down the grated platform towards the access portion of the ship, their guns scanning everything.

"_Jane!"_ Ellen Ripley called out. "_Jane! Get everyone off the shuttle! Engine must have sucked something in, I'm reading power fluctuations and critical warnings!"_

"You heard the woman! Everyone off!" Shepard called out. "Go! Go! Go!" Twenty-one beings burst out of the shuttle as fast as they could without stampeding one another, Ripley and Victonius jumping out of the opening cock pit while everyone else double-timed it through the crew door. As soon as the last person left, Naor the Bull's bulk taking up too much space for him to try to be anything but last, Shepard grabbed the two hardened cases that they had brought with them, dragging out the fifty kilo boxes herself with one in each hand, exiting the shuttle as she heard something inside the vessel cough and sputter, metal groaning as the smell of burning electronics and fuel began to assail her nose. She dragged the cases out, grunting at the weight of them as pulled on them, the one hundred kilos of weight making her slow and cumbersome. She was surprised to see that two Turians jumped in to help her, Garrus Vakarian and Elias Korvan grabbing a case each, lifting them so the bottoms didn't drag and they could move faster. Shepard grunted as she began to pull away faster from the shuttle, seeing smoke starting to billow from the crew compartment of the shuttle, as well as flames sparking out from side vents of the engines. Together, the three of them moved away from the shuttle, heading down towards the platform where the N7's and full-fledge Specters had cleared, everyone else having taken positions on the flight deck platform, weapons out and scanning. Shepard, Garrus, and Elias scuffled over towards the group, reaching them in a few seconds when a loud 'bang!' came from somewhere inside the shuttle. Shepard turned to look, and saw a nice new hole in the side of the shuttle's hull where the engine laid, fire billowing out of it.

"Well, there goes our ride." Shepard grunted, dropping the cases in her hands, feeling the servos of her Serrice Counsel armor kicking back into a passive state, the motorized joints in her elbows and knees returning to their resting state, giving her better mobility. Even with them, she was panting from having to drag and lift the cases, but they were needed. She cracked one open, pulling at its simple lock and opening its hardened lid, and sighed when she saw that everything looked to be in order; food, water, and Medigel were contained inside, compartmented between levo- and dextro-chilarity. If things went strange, they had enough food and water to last them at least six days on two-third's rations, a week plus on half. It wouldn't be pleasant, but they would survive. "Good. Food and water's fine." She went to the next case, opening that as well, and let out another sigh of relief. More Medigel, more food, more water. A solid seven days of supplies, plus whatever they might scavenge from the _Ishimura_. Recharging their Omnitools and their armor's battery packs would be a concern before getting a bite to eat would be!

"Seriously, El-Tee. What is up with you stranding us in shitholes?" Corporal Jeanette Vasquez asked, holding her heavily-modified M56 Marshal Light Machine Gun at the ready, the now-overpowered squad support gun with its rotating heat-sink drum aimed at the primary door that led from flight deck to interior of ship. "First LV 426, now this place. Can't we get stranded someplace nice, _jefe_? Like Venus?"

"I'll take it under advisement, Vas." Shepard replied dryly, closing both hardened cases, taking a look at her team. She wasn't pleased with what she was seeing; most seemed on edge with the thought of being stuck on a derelict ship that hadn't responded to hails and looked to be dead in the water. Thankfully, her team of humans and the Turians were made of sterner stuff, though Corporal-Technician Bill Hudson was muttering to himself; never a good sign with him. Hudson was a classic grunt; brave during peace, vicious during a stand-up fight, but the squad's technician didn't handle stress well. Sometimes it was hard to forget he was just a 20 year old kid from the area of Texas. She moved a few steps over to Hudson, who was looking a little bit on edge, the panic in his eyes growing as he looked at the dead shuttle. "Hudson? Bill?" Shepard whispered to him, moving her throat-mike first so that her conversation was for his ears alone. His eyes focused on hers, and she could see him sweating much in the same way she would whenever she thought about outer space. "Bill, see what's behind me?" The man' looked at her oddly, but his eyes darted over her shoulder, where most everyone else stood… including the variety of alien species behind her. "Do _not_ embarrass yourself in front of them, Bill. You're better than that, and we both know it. If you can wax bugs in LV 426, then you can survive anything, Marine."

"Yeah. Yeah, you're right!" The squad's technician snorted in some air, wiping off his brow, his helmet collapsed and on a hardpoint at his back. Most had already taken off their helmets once they had read the atmo analyst on their own personal Omnitools, seeing that the flight deck had not only breathable air, but acceptable air pressure, too. "Shuttle crash just rattled me a bit, El-Tee. I'm five-by-five." Hudson nodded, pulling his Stryker Assault Rifle off his back and putting the stock of the explosive-projectile weapon to his shoulder. "Ready to tag some bags and grab some ass."

"As long as it isn't mine." Shepard pointed out with a smirk, making the squad's technician cough uncomfortably. _So someone has been checking out my ass._ Shepard thought to herself, slightly amused. She couldn't really blame him; guys were biologically wired to do so. As long as he kept it in check, she'd let him look as much as he liked as long as it wasn't obvious.

_Otherwise he'll find out how much fun warpfire feels_. Tela Vasir thought through her bond, making Shepard smile internally.

"Alright. Daeporm?" Shepard identified the Salarian Specter Daeporn Norban, a former C-Sec Electronic Crimes Investigator who was good with a gun and an Omnitool. "You and Hudson see if we can get that door panel access talking to us. I want to know what's on the other side and the status of it before we start making a beachhead for us. Royce, Stacy, Cavius? Walk with me for a moment." The two N7's and the Specter Instructor moved away from the group slightly, their eyes still on everything as Shepard double-checked to make sure her throat-mike was still off. "We're going to have to split up into four teams. Dragging everyone at once is just ungainly and asking for problems to occur. That give each team at least six, and one with seven. What I'm worried about are the people we've got that aren't exactly suited for combat operations."

The original plan had been that several of the team would have stayed on the shuttle, using it as a communications hub, as well as a tactical headquarters and information-gathering purposes. While the Specter recruits were at the top of their respective fields, not everyone had 'combat' as a field. Such beings like Garrus Vakarian and Asha T'vara were warriors, trained, tried, and true, ones that Shepard had no worries about when it came time to rock n'roll. Yet others had been selected for other skills. Cur Dileed, the group's sole Volus, was a brilliant computer programmer and software specialist; he was a hacker of talent. Picked up by the Office of Special Tactics when doing personal investigations on a Volus company interested in selling out false territory claims and instigating battles to sell weapons to both sides, Cur was a wizard with an Omnitool. Yet his combat abilities weren't even marginal; Volus just weren't built for speed or for defense for the galaxy at large. Perhaps if they were on Irune, Cur Dileed would prove his metal, but in his blown-up pressure suit containing chlorine gas, Cur was a great liability when bullets started flying. Porol Lamel, another Salarian Specter recruit, came from the STG as a Electronics Warfare Officer, an operator who could sabotage an emey's armor and cut through building defenses with ease. While a great support specialist, he only had the basic combat skills, and was armed only with a M-77 Paladin pistol and a M-4 Shuriken Machine Pistol. There was also Dr. Liara T'soni, Bastila Shan, her own grandmother, and possibly Flight Lieutenant Tibevius Victonius, though the last two wouldn't be completely defenseless or without training; Ellen Ripley was a former United States Navy pilot with a passing familiarity with guns, and had proven her resourcefulness on the _Norstromo_ and LV 426, and Tibevius Victonius was a Turian, plain and simple. There was also Sergeant Rita Vrataski, who was almost three months pregnant with Tip Crowe's son. While she could fight, Shepard had no inclination putting the N3 through combat. Now they had no choice.

"We've got enough tech specialists and biotics to spread around." Cavius Raminion pointed out, mulling it over quickly. "An Asari to each squad, spread the tech evenly, and whoever has the larger squad takes our two civilians around."

"Then I'll take the Protheanologists, along with Tela Vasir, Garrus Vakarian, Rahe'Tarram and Jondum Bau. That'll give me enough heavy-hitters to compliment the fact I've got two nerds running along with me." Shepard declared, seeing the others nod. "Naor should compliment whoever takes Cur Dileed and Porol Lamal. His auto-targeting Spitfires are worth about four of us alone, and I've seen him in simulation; we don't call him 'the Bull' for nothing."

"Then I'll take the Elcor, the Volus, and Porol." Captain Royce Mason replied with a nod of his head. "I'll get Ulla D'veora and Sergeant Hicks. That bloke's as cool as ice."

"I'll absorb the Ripper, Bitch, Vasquez, Daeporm Norban, and the Drell lady." Master Chief Stacy Valentino threw out, making Shepard frown; there wasn't enough biotics to pass around if she took Tela with her. The look must have told, because her Auntie gave her a leveling stare. "I've worked without biotic mumbo-jumbo my entire life, Janey. Another mission without ain't going to kill me. Besides, of the four of us, you have the least experience leading a team, and you need the Blue's experience at your side." The female N7 smiled at her for a moment, as Stacy gave Shepard a friendly pat on her shoulder. "Besides, if I understand it correctly, you two will be much more useful side-by-side than pulled apart." Shepard felt her heart almost stop in her chest. Did… did she know?

"But… how…?"

"Please, Janey, we've known you since you was a lil' Sheila." Royce replied with a smile, crossing his arms over his chest. "Plus the fact that you can't seem to keep your eyes off of her. Especially recently."

"_Je'dai?_" Cavius asked, curious, looking right at her. "You must been in the early stages; you haven't known each other that long."

"Gods…" Shepard groaned, covering her face with her hand, unable to believe that this was happening _right now_. "You… knew?"

"You're not that subtle, Janey." Stacy told her, the smile having gone, but the tenderness was still there. "You two've been practically connected to the hip since we landed on the Citadel, and she's been there for you for… what, seven different assassination attempts? You care for her, and I trust her. Good enough for me."

"I… I'd thought…" She felt her breath coming in ragged and hard, looking at Royce and Stacy, her adopted Aunt and Uncle merely looking back at her, their faces understanding, supportive. "I didn't even know what to say! It's been… it's been so hard for me…"

"I know, 'gel." Royce replied softly, his rugged features softening. "We could tell, and if the Blue makes it easier for you, makes you stand a little taller, makes you smile a little more, then how is it a bad thing? Me, Val, and Ripper talked this over a few weeks ago, and we were just waitin' for you to fight through your own demons before we said anything. You've got our approval, Janey. So does Tela." Shepard couldn't believe what she was hearing, yet… yet they knew and they weren't condemning her! It was as if a ball of stress she never knew existed finally relaxed inside of her. She blinked away the tears that were beginning to burn her eyes, and Cavius, thankfully, pretended to be looking somewhere else.

"Thank you, I…" Shepard was at a loss of words, what she had been fearing proved to be only in her mind. Yes, there would be human that would condemn her no matter what, but those closest to her had her back still. That support meant so much to her, and she couldn't help but feel the love she had for her Uncle Royce and Aunt Stacy, two N's that adopted her just because they could, seeing a little girl with no one else but her Pop. They had probably told her a dozen times why they had done it, but Shepard knew the truth; she was the daughter they never had, the child they would never raised. Like most N's, their lived were fraught with deployments and danger, and most feared leaving behind children too young to understand why mommy and daddy were gone all the time… or just plain gone. To Stacy and Royce, Shepard was a chance to be like a parent, to help raise an orphaned girl whose father's best friend tried to raise the best he could while being an N himself. Perhaps it was out of sympathy, or love, or simple kindness, yet they had done it all the same. When she had agreed to become a Specter, Royce and Stacy had been the first people she told, making Vasquez promise to shut her mouth. Now they were the first to know that she was in love with an alien; a very serious taboo among humans. Yet, they cared, and didn't condemn her. Shepard wiped away at her tears, and she could tell that Tela was feeling what _she_ was feeling through her bond, how her heart had filled with love for the two humans standing in front of her. _They know, and they understand…_ the relief was almost overwhelming.

_You have a good family, Jane Shepard._ Tela's thought echoed in her mind, and she couldn't help but agree. _Honor and cherish it well_.

"I was… I was just afraid to say anything." Shepard admitted, feeling embarrassed by it all, especially with Cavius Raminion standing right there, her Specter Instructor standing there with arms folded. "You… you know how we humans can be, and with everything that was going on…"

"Janey, we understand." Stacy said softly, her tone kind. "We don't blame you. I'd be pretty torn if I were in your position. You've got a lot riding on your shoulders, kiddo; the Trial, being a Specter, those fucking assholes trying to bump you off. You found a way through all this mess that makes you happy, keeps you straight and true. Why do you think we follow you, kiddo? Because you need our support as well, some humans that aren't complete fucking jerks. Same with Vas, Hicks, Hudson, and Bitch; we're all here for you. We're not here to remind you that you're human; we're here to remind you that no matter what, there are people that support you, believe in you. Besides," the N7 smile, "we get to tease you behind your back about possible 'nightly' activities. You should hear some of Vasquez's ideas."

"Wai… what? They _know?_"

"As we said; you ain't subtle." Royce replied, amused. "Think we haven't noticed that Tela hasn't seemed to leave the _Tor'jelai _the last few days, or how 'early' she was? You're just as bad as you were when you was a teenager. I seem to remember your Auntie catchin' you then, too."

"Okay, so if we're done laugh at me," Shepard huffed, feeling foolish, "we're still stuck in a dead ship in the middle of dead space. Can we keep your perverted thoughts in check so we can figure out what the hell happened to this ship and find a way off of it?"

"Of course." Stacy replied, but by the smirk on her face, Shepard didn't exactly believe her, either.

* * *

A/N: There is no 'Yamlat System' in Hades Nexus, as the area was supposedly 'uncharted' in Dead Space, and an 'illegal operation'.

The term 'dead space' actually indicates something else other than the lack of contact-able nodes. If you haven't played the game or have forgotten, then I'm not spoiling it.

Shepard fears space itself, an incident connected from her being a sole survival of the destruction of the SSV _Iwo Jima_, and being stuck in a one-person lifepod that only allowed her to look out into space for five days. It's been a while since I mentioned this.

While I don't understand why this is true, sound travels better in a thicker fluid. Thus, in water, sound travels not only faster, but better as well than in air. In space, sound is almost completely deadened, though as I understand it, it might be due to so much cosmic interference. But in space, it is true that no one can hear you scream. It does exist as electromagnetic vibrations that can be computed into sounds that we understand, though.

I'm sorry, but Issac Clark, Zach Hammond, and Kendra Daniels are not making it into this story. Neither will 'make-us-whole' Nicole. Good riddance to her.

Asteroids belongs to Atari. I still play it to this day on occasion. Pew-pew-pew!

One hundred kilograms is two-hundred and twenty pounds, for us Americans. A hundred and sixty pound person should find it impossible to drag anything more than their weight, especially dragging it on the ground, adding resistance. Shepard's armor does have motorized joints for such things, though I haven't made mention of them before, an oversight of mine. In ME 1, this was suppose to make your 'smash' damage greater, but wasn't used in ME 2 or 3, especially when there's a melee button. An oversight.

And I made it to where Omnitools need to charge. Seriously, it makes sense. To me, they are fancy tablets with some extraordinary capabilities, but they still need power, and it's not running off of Kool-aid.


	7. 7: New Arrivals

_Disclaimer: BioWare owns Mass Effect. 20th Century Fox owns the Alien franchise. EA owns Dark Space._

**Hades Nexus Cluster, February 22, 2177**

"We've got access!" Corporal-Technician Bill Hudson called out, working the door panel next to an access hatch that was labeled above its frame, marking it the 'Arrival/Departure Lounge'. "Damn thing's got some sort of emergency override on it that will let me peek inside before we go in. Pulling it up now." The squad technician connected his Omnitool to the door's access panel as twenty-four people held their positions around him, most of them keeping an eye on the perimeter with weapons out. "Looks like the interior's empty, El-Tee. But there's something wrong with the camera inside; it's eschewed and it won't let me pan. Looks clear, but hard to tell."

"Then we clear it the old-fashion way." 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard replied, looking to Master Chief Stacy Valentino, giving her the nod. "Team Cowboy, if you would be so kind?"

"My kind of party." Valentino smiled, snapping her fingers at her team that she had picked out a few minutes before, each person identified who their team leader was, and who would be in their squad. "Vasquez, Drang? You two got point. Get those radars up, people, and weapons hot in five." Corporal Jeanette Vasquez and Kya Drang both nodded as both females stood on either side of the door readying their weapons; Vasquez with her heavily-modified M56 Marshal Light Machine Gun with its upgraded VI-driven Smart Tracking System, and the female Drell with her Armax Arsenal Punisher Sniper Rifle, both aiming at the door as Valentino gave Hudson the nod, indicating for him to open the door.

"Here we go." Hudson crossed his fingers before opening the door, the metal portal sliding open upward. Vasquez and Drang moved forward a few feet, their respective weapons aimed forward, sweeping the room quickly. Shepard watched as both Human and Drell moved patently through the room, clearing corners and dark spots. It took them perhaps fifteen seconds to do so.

"_Jefe, we're clear, but this place is a mess."_ Vasquez called out over her radio. _"Like a massacre happened."_

"Okay, let's follow them in and secure the room." Shepard called out, pointing to Stacy and signaling the rest of her Team Cowboy to push in. Sergeant Rita Vrataski went in with her N7 Saber in her hands, followed by Daeporn Norban and Ellen Ripley, both Salarian Specter and Human pilot holding Sub Machine Guns in their hands at the ready. Shepard winced at the sight of her grandmother wearing light armor and armed with a M9 Tempest in her hands, but with no other safe locations, Ripley was going have to work alongside with them, much like she had during LV 426. Vrataski, too, was another point against her, the woman still in early pregnancy. If anything happened to T.J., Shepard wouldn't know what to do with herself. Bringing Full Metal Bitch had been a mistake, but it was too late to do anything about it now.

"_Janey, we got a few doors and lockers in here, and a Goddamn waiting room."_ Master Chief Valentino called out, her voice steady and calm. _"It's secured for now, but this place has got too many vents and accesses to be used. Ain't making this a CCF." _Shepard mutely nodded, the tactic of making the first secured location a Command and Control Front a necessity when in hostile territory. If they could just find a room they could completely control without having to watch their backs, Shepard could have those not suitable for a fight left in the CCF, controlling information and keeping the location secure in case things got dicy. _"You're good to come in."_

"Teams? Move forward." Shepard pointed to Captain Royce Mason, waving her finger towards the door as he, Naor the Bull, Cur Dileed, Porol Lamal, Ulla D'veora, and Sergeant Dwayne Hicks went into the lounge. Team Dingo was an interesting one with an Elcor Bull moving about, yet Naor always seemed to be mindful of where he was going, careful with his four tree-trunk legs, never getting close to stepping on anyone, to include the Volus Cur Dileed. Shepard had to admit that Dileed looked pretty badass in his armored pressure suit, almost like a walking miniature tank, his Elkoss Combine M-4 Shuriken looking more like a hand cannon in his stubby arms as oppose to being a machine pistol. Thankfully, the Volus could wield a pair of them, and he was a fair shot with them, too. Watching the Volus waddling behind the long-limbed Elcor was a sight, yet Cur kept up without any issues. Perhaps he would only work Specter Investigations Division, but he hadn't uttered one word of complaint about the situation he was in. Volus had some guts.

Shepard gave a nod to the next team leader, Specter Instructor Cavius Raminion leading Team Ghost. The Turian Specter took the lead as Tibevius Victonius, Elias Korvan, Vona Shatari, Asha T'vara, and Hudson followed, their weapons up and ready. The heavily-Turian team moved well, Hudson being the only one who wasn't quite in sync with the Turian team, Asha T'vara having served alongside Blackwatch teams in the past. Tibevius Victonius, carrying the Turian standard M-15 Vindicator, looked decently in place among the Specter recruits, though his light Agent armor meant that he had little in the way of protection against attacks. Still, for a Team thrown together, they looked well enough.

"Alright, Team Valkyrie, move in." Shepard cued in her team, taking up the rear since they were civilian-heavy, Dr. Liara T'soni and Bastila Shan being in the middle of the formation, with Garrus Vakarian taking the rear position for overwatch and rear guard. Shepard led them in with her Specter Gear Mark VII Assault Rifle in her hands, her Kuwashii visor set on a light opaque HUD with its radar on, marking her team members in blue and the other team members in green on her display. They entered into the lounge, and Shepard immediately saw what Vasquez had pointed out; the place did look like the host of a massacre. As soon as Garrus stepped inside the room, he shut the door behind him, working on the interior door panel to set a locking mechanism that any one of them would be able to open remotely if needed, locking it behind them. Shepard looked around the large lounge, scanning with her eyes. Several bucket-seat benches were available to sit in, complete with end tables, with a few energy drink cans sitting on them. Along the upper portions of the walls were several entertainment monitors that were obviously meant to display news, shows, and other forms of entertainment for those who occupied the lounge, though for now they were all showing static. Yet it was obvious that _something_ had happened, as the room was trashed, luggage spilled and trash littering the floor. One of the benches was eschewed from its normal place, and there were several bloody streaks that were dragged across the ground, heading from somewhere in the center of the room to one of the ducts in the wall, the grating punched outward.

"I see… eight pieces of luggage." Shepard announced, calling out what she saw. "Usually a two bag limit for such places. But I only see three streaks."

"Shit, good call." Royce admitted, looking at the floor. "Someone got away either at the beginning, middle, or end of it." There were only two doors leading out of the Lounge; one port and one starboard, Shepard noticed. One led to a security station to the starboard side of the room, while the other led towards a bank of elevators that was labeled 'To Tram Station'. Hopefully, the Trams were working on the _Ishimura_, otherwise they would all be doing a lot of walking. Gods knew if the sections of the ship were even interconnected with restricted accesses between the workers and those in command of the ship. There wasn't even any guarantee that the Specter Access Level Omnitools they possessed would even let them through secured locations; CEC wasn't known to being friendly to aliens. Shepard eyeballed the security station that was behind a wall of ceramic glass, the door leading inside powered and accessible. The work station might give them an idea what had happened to the _Ishimura_, or at least the Lounge.

"Valkyrie, we're going to the security station. Reminion? Take your team to the Tram Station, see if the Tram's even functional." Shepard ordered, getting a nod from the Turian Specter. "Val? Back them up. Perhaps we can trip over an explanation why this place is empty and looks like a murder scene. Mason, have your men hold fast and prepare to react accordingly." Orders given, Shepard led her team towards the security station door, punching the holographic haptic button, the door mechanism unlocking slowly as the station scanned her, much to her surprise. Whatever it was looking for, it seemed to satisfy the VI because the door opened a few seconds later. Shepard led through the door first, her Mark VII Assault Rifle easy in her hand as she was followed by Tela Vasir, Rahe'Tarram nar Sofis, Dr. Liara T'soni, Bastila Shan, Jondum Bau and Garrus Vakarian. The security station was thankfully large enough for all of them as Jondum and Garrus immediately put guns onto the door leading to an elevator partitioned away from the security station, while Rahe'Tarram kept her Quarian Carbine Shotgun in her three-fingered hands, her orange-tinted face plate scanning an air duct. The Protheanologists stuck with Tela Vasir, who moved close to Shepard while the Marine went straight for the security station's work station, powering on the system and turning on its haptic keyboard and holographic monitor. The system booted up slowly, much slower than it should have, making Shepard frown for a moment. Either CEC had gotten cheap with its equipment, the VIOS was seriously out-of-date… or someone had corrupted the system. None of those options were good, and she hoped that the station was the only one acting on the fritz. It finally powered on, and the VIOS immediately began displaying alerts.

"Here we go." Shepard said to herself, seeing that the alerts all dealt with the status of the ship. She read… _holy shit_, seventy-four separate alerts? Nineteen marked critical failures? What the hell had happened? There was an overlay of the ship on the haptic monitor, giving a rough outline of the _Ishimura_ and its various compartments. Shepard felt her heart drop when practically every portion of the ship was flashing red for alerts, pinpointing areas of the alerts, and whole sections were highlighted for critical failures. Gods… the ship was practically dead if the read out was true. Engines, life support, power, the ship's Asteroid Defense System… everything was pretty much borderline fucked. If they wanted to leave the ship, they were going to have to get the _Ishimura _out of the debris field while investigating the fate of the ship and its crew. Shepard looked at some of the issues… life support critical, engines at critical, ADS at critical, communications array at critical… was _nothing_ working on the damn ship? Sadly, the security station provided no details save for what was wrong, not how or offering the ability to fix it right there. "Son of a bitch. Royce? Our work _isn't_ cut out for us. Damn near everything is broken on this ship."

"_Tram's a bust_." Stacy put out, obviously having reached the Tram Station. "_Seems like that one is stuck on the tracks at the junction on your end, Janey, which we can't reach from here. Station also says the circuit board is fried Should be able to fix it on your end."_

"Oh boy, I always wanted to operate a choo-choo." Shepard replied with a chuckle, shutting off the security station. "Alright, people. Let's take that door. Station said that it would lead us to the Tram Repair Station. Rahe? If you would be so kind?"

"Introduce a Quarian into the group, and somehow every electrical problem is _my_ responsibility." The Pilgrim complained good-naturedly, moving to the door that Garrus and Jondum were covering. "Oh, Rahe, the coffee-maker isn't working properly! My suit is acting up! My Omnitool is downloading slowly!"

"Rahe! My Quarian teammate's vocal synthesizer is acting up, it might need to be shut down for repairs." Shepard returned, teasing her Quarian friend.

"_Bosh'tet_." The Quarian giggled as she tapped at the door's console, asking for an access code. Rahe tried her Specter Access Code, but to no avail; it was as Shepard feared, CEC didn't proscribe to Citadel regulations which would allow C-Sec or Special Tactics access in case of emergencies. This didn't stop the Quarian from pulling the access open, looking at the hardware underneath. "Ha! Simple human encryption protocols, easily bypassed with a switch! Your race is really paranoid, Jane."

"Can you blame us?" Shepard asked, the orange-tinted face mask of Rahe'Tarram turning to her, and then to her work, her six fingers pulling down at a toggle that would give them access to the door, realizing that she was the very reason she was having to physically work the door's opening mechanism.

"I guess not." The Quarian keyed the toggle, and the holographic lock turned from red to white, the door now unlocked. "One Quarian patch job, success!" The Quarian stood up and brushed off her hands, unshipping her Quarian Carbine Shotgun from her back and readying it. "Ready when you are, Jane."

"_Toul'gan_." Shepard replied to Rahe, using a Quarian epitaph that she had taught Shepard, meaning 'buckethead'. Shepard stood ready by the door as she saw Jondum Bau take the other side of the door, his M-12 Locust Sub-Machine Gun at the ready. The Salarian nodded to her ones as she hit the open button with her elbow, both human and Salarian able to slide into the door quickly and without banging into one another due to their smaller statures as oppose to a Turian, clearing the immediate hallway that they found themselves in. The hallway was a simple corridor, ill-lit and trashed, only going about ten meters before turning to the left. Jondum took the left side of the hallway as Shepard went to the right, her Mark VII Assault Rifle touching everything as she switched on her taclight, shining it on grating, ducts, corners, and everything else in between.

"Clear." Jondum called out, informing the rest of Team Valkyrie while Shepard walked further into her hallway, seeing that it led further in.

"Got a turn up ahead." Shepard called out. "Tela? Rear guard. Garrus and Rahe, you've got babysitting duties."

"Now I feel like I'm five." Bastila Shan grumped, though she said nothing else. Shepard didn't want to deal with a pouty researcher, so she leveled a glance at Dr. Liara T'soni behind her, her glare giving the good Doctor an idea what she was thinking. Liara, much to her credit, understood and looked to the human researcher, who was undoubtedly feeling some sort of disapproval through their bond. Bastila, thankfully, remained silent as Rahe'Tarram stuck to her side, the Quarian nudging the human woman and using a hand signal; pointing at her own silvery eyes with both of her fingers, and then pointing right at the human, indicating _I'll be watching you._ Shepard had to smile at that. She and Jondum took point, her Serrice Counsel armor's radar still tracking the movements of Team Valkyrie as she and the Salarian moved down the hallway, seeing it terminate into another access hatch, a helpful icon identifying it as an elevator. Thankfully, it was an all-access elevator that needed no tampering with in order to operate. Raising her rifle to the ready, she nodded to Bau to have him punch the 'open' button, and the doors slid to each side, revealing an empty elevator. Shepard stood to one side, putting a hand in the elevator to keep the doors open, letting her team enter the elevator before getting in herself.

"Royce? We're in the elevator that _should_ take us to the Tram Control Room." Shepard called up on her radio, informing the leader of Team Dingo as the elevator began to move downward. "I haven't seen anything to indicate what happened here. Have you?"

"_Nothin' so far, Janey."_ Royce replied, his voice a little distorted, making Shepard frown. Omnitool communications should have been fine for ten kilometers, even in a spaceship. Something must be interfering with the signal, which perplexed her. They were all using Specter-level Omnitools, encryption, and frequencies; no one should even be aware _how_ to interrupt their comms. Humans had learned a few nasty tricks over their various wars; signal interruptors, relay broadcasters, local EMP pulses, quantum interference devices and the such. Yet those were active measures that were on all the time, and usually used quite a bit of power. The _Ishimura_ was a mining vessel; they wouldn't have tech like that. Not to mention with all the problems on the vessel as well. "_Stacy and Cavius haven't seen anythin', either. You pickin' them up on comms?"_

"Nothing. Not even static." Sheaprd bit her lip a little, trying to think what would cause such a disruption, especially with military communications. She would have thought that with such high-tech equipment that Specter could get their hands on, a couple hundred meters or so of metal and space wouldn't make a difference. "We should hear them soon if they're in the Tram Station, too. Head down their way and meet up with them there. If we can get the Trams rolling, we can use it as a mobile headquarters. Bring the cases of food with you, too. Tram Station may not be the best hold-out, but it's better than being in some lockdown. Perhaps the corridor will be easier with the interference."

"_We c—n hop—-."_ Royce's voice sputtered over the line, and Shepard heard herself curse. Damn, nothing was ever easy, was it. As a thought, she opened up her Omnitool and sent Royce a short text message, just asking for an acknowledgement. To her surprise, he answered quickly, with no corruption. Shepard then tried with Stacy and Cavius. They replied back in less than a minute.

"Radios don't work, but we can text on Omnitools." Shepard said to her team, informing them. "Ideas? All I can think of is frequency interference, but that shouldn't be possible, right?"

"A text is basically a short pulse of information, bytes of information sent as a packet." Rahe'Tarram explained, thinking it over. "A radio communication is constant, sending much larger caches of data in a stream. It would be much easier to interrupt a signal that it would be a packet of data."

"So, we could possibly send a data text to the _Spirit_?" Shepard asked, sensing a hope coming their way. She knew she should know better, an Omnitool didn't have that kind of range, but the _Ishimura_ might if they located the Communications Room, or even just found some antenna.

"With an antenna and a boost in power… yes, it's possible." The Quarian replied, her voice getting excited. "We'll need a dish of sufficient size to make a short-range communications burst, and perhaps a power cell to amplify its broadcasting power. But we'll also need the _Spirit's_ position, and be within a few degrees of it. Without any kind of radar, ladar, or spotting equipment, it will be shooting in the dark."

"That's still better than what we had before." Tela replied, her tone hopeful. "We could find the source of the interruption, but we would need an idea where to start, too. I suggest that we send word-to-text communications through our Omnitools to the other teams, making it a priority alarm to the user when the word starts with '_priority'_, that way we can communicate in emergencies without having a member of the team constantly reading their Omnitool for useless updates."

"I like it." Shepard replied, her bond pulsing with content; did the Asari Specter just feel joy from such a simple compliment? Perhaps she should do it more often. "I'll text the others so we can set up our Omnitool's VI's to do just that. And how long is this damn elevator? Are we back on the Citadel?"

* * *

1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard moved through the corridor with Jondum Bau at her side, the Salarian Specter holding onto his M-12 Locust Sub-Machine Gun close to his chest, his amphibian-like eyes scanning everything as they walked into the Tram Control Room. The room was of fair size, complete with a Tram Control Station, two dispensaries filled with sodas and energy drinks, and windows that let them see Teams Cowboy and Ghost, twelve beings guarding the room, which had what looked to be a short Tram car that appeared not to be operational.

"Stacy, you read me now?" Shepard called out to Master Chief Stacy Valentino, the N7 in charge of Team Cowboy. She saw through the ceramic glass the older blonde woman turn and smile at her.

"_Shit, thought I was going to have to hold your hand."_ Her Auntie Val said, making Balista Shan snicker a little, earning herself a glare from both Shepard and Tela. "_Whatever's wrong with the buggy is on your end, Janey. Be a dear and fix Momma Bear's ride. Can't pimp out Bitch without a ride to hustle her in."_

"Charming." Shepard shook her head, smiling all the while. Stacy would never change. "While we do all the hard work, why don't you tell Cavius why you're called the Organ Splitter? I'm sure that'll give you something to talk about."

"_Organ Splitter? Do I even want to know?"_ Team Ghost's Cavius Reminion asked, looking at Shepard through the glass. "_I've noticed that humans tend to have a rather poor form of humor involving sexual acts and parts."_

"_That's half the fun." _Corporal-Technician Bill Hudson pointed out with a sarcastic tone.

"Alright, children. We're off to find Stacy's doohickey." Shepard announced, looking over to the door marked 'Cargo Hallway'. She felt Tela push her feelings through the bond, and Shepard reciprocated as she headed towards the door, mashing the button with her fist, once more, she and Jondum Bau cleared the door, seeing an immediate T-junction that went left and right. The Salarian went to the left while Shepard went right, clearing the immiedate hallway as Tela Vasir went to the left of her while Rahe'Tarram went to the right of Jondum. "Clear corridor, stop at any doors." Shepard ordered, getting simple acknowledgements from the Specters. Together, Shepard and Tela moved as one, their bond humming in sync, moving as one. They moved down the hall, and Tela thought _door to left_, which Shepard returned _bathrooms,_ the Asari moving in and doing a quick sweep of both the male and female bathrooms, exiting a few moments later while Shepard held her position, her Mark VII aimed down the corridor. As soon as the Thessian returned, the continued down the way, stepping over fallen luggage and debris on the floor. Something by her foot caught her eye, and she found what looked to be an Audio Recording Device, meant for those who couldn't transmit through Omnitool. Curious, Shepard picked it up, and pressed the 'play' button.

"_This is Benson."_ A man's voice came over the device, breathing hard with a definite tone of panic come from his voice, causing Shepard and Tela to look at one another. _"Everybody listen up! They're using the vents! That's how they're getting around the ship! Stay away from the vents…"_ Another man's voice came from the background of the recording, crying _Look out!_, accompanied by the sound of something metal breaking. _"Get back! Get back!"_ Benson's voice shouted through the device, ending with a painful scream before cutting off.

"Well, I guess it is safe to assume that they use vents." Tela snorted, seeing one at the end of the corridor, busted open as if something went through it. "It would have helped if the human had given us a description."

"Can't win them all, 'gel." Shepard shrugged, pocketing the ARD into a spare hard pouch on her Serrice Counsel armor. "Let's clear this area." The Thessian nodded to her, giving her both a smile with her lips and a gentle nudge with her bond, and together the continued to move down the last fifteen meters of the corridor. The corridor took a left at the end, and Shepard saw that it immediately terminated into a door, identified as 'Tram Tunnel Door'. "Here we go. Jondum? Rahe? You find anything on your end? We got the Tram this way."

"_The Maintenance Bay, but the door is locked, and the control panel is busted."_ Rahe'Tarram replied over her radio, her synthesized voice frustrated. "_I think we can unlock it from a computer node or if we had some sort of access pass, for the scanner still works. We just won't be able to bypass it."_

"Something else to keep an eye open for." Shepard sighed. "Move to my position. Garrus? Bring the scientists." She got acknowledgements all around and only had to wait a few minutes for the Quarian, Salarian, Turian, Asari, and human to move towards the door in which she and the Thessian waited beside. Tela moved to press the open function on the door's panel, the holographic lock indicting that the door would be opening as Shepard aimed her assault rifle at the door, ready to clear it as the door slide open to both sides, revealing a corridor that lead downward, a ramp that went perhaps fifteen meters, narrower than the previous hallway. Shepard took the lead, hardly being enough room for two people to walk side-by-side comfortably. Her taclight illuminated the downward corridor as her eyes scanned everything. Her visor's HUD displaying no other movement on its radar other than her team as she walked down the ramp, approaching a door that was too labeled 'Tram Tunnel Door'. Jondum Bau, the slightest of them, seemed to have read her mind as he slid beside her, intending to help Shepard cover the door as she went to open it.

They found the Tram Tunnel.

"Gods, what a mess." Shepard muttered as she slowly pie'ed the door, finding herself in a large tunnel, debris clogging the floor as vents from the ground released steam and some unknown gas into the tunnel, giving the floor a haze upon its darkened surface. Everyone had slowly filled into the Tram Tunnel, the vast corridors going to either end farther than the eye could see. The Tunnel itself was some twenty meters wide, and probably thirty meters tall, a cavernous tube made of metal that burrowed its way through the _Ishimura_. Each of them scanned the Tunnel's dimensions slowly, even the Protheanologists, taking their time to illuminate and check every corner and crevice of the Tunnel. The darkness of the Tunnel made it to were they could barely see the ceiling from where they stood, and not much further than thirty meters in either direction. Shepard '_snicked_' her tongue against her clenched teeth; a place like this was an ambush waiting to happen if there were hostile forces.

"Visor? Night vision." Shepard called out, her Kuwaskii visor going to low luminosity vision, enhancing the Tunnel in shades of black and green, the image giving her a bit better of a view. She saw that the Tram Tunnel was divided into partitions, ribs that encircled the interior that prevented them from walking much further than a hundred meter section of the Tunnel. On the ceiling was the Tram's track, a single monorail that ran the length of the Tunnel, a thick beam held in place by magnetics. Up ahead, near the partition, Shepard could see a door on the opposite wall that seemed to go towards their destination. "Everyone? I've got a possible route. Keep together in single file, and don't walk on any grating. Enough has gone wrong on this ship to trust some damn air vent not to collapse." She got a round of acknowledgments from her team as she led them along the far right wall of the Tunnel, doing her best to avoid kicking the debris on the floor around to minimize their presence. The sound of a glass bottle being kicked across the ground, spinning about as it rolled across the metal surface had everyone stop, guns pointed in all directions as the bottle finally stopped rolling and spinning about, Shepard putting her taclight's beam on the bottle, seeing it to be a brand of Lightspeed energy beverage. She looked back to her team, and saw that Dr. Liara T'soni looked very sheepishly back.

"I'm sorry. I can't see what we're walking on." The Protheanologist apologized in a whisper, getting a snort from Rahe'Tarram. "I'm not a soldier, but I'm trying my best not to be completely worthless."

"Just try summoning your inner-Commando, Doctor; light steps, small profile, and not playing 'kick the can' in creepy corridors." Shepard replied dryly, eliciting a chuckle from Garrus Vakarian. She continued towards where she had seen the door, taking few moments to reach it. Shepard saw an immediate problem; the door was malfunctioning, Shepard looking at the distastefully as it opened and shut on itself quickly, faster than she'd care to time it and try to rush through it. By the way it snapped closed every second or so, she was pretty sure that it would easily crush a limb… or perhaps her chest. Taking such a risk was needless, and creating casualties in such a way over something as silly as an uncooperative door was pointless. "Okay. Options?"

"Agent Shepard, if I may?" Dr. Liara T'soni spoke up, glowing blue with biotic energy. She looked to Tela, who merely shrugged, and took a step back as the Protheanologist raised a hand towards the malfunctioning door, and shot forth a spew of biotic energy towards it as it slammed open… and stayed open. "Please go forth, I will not be able to hold this forever." The Doctor grunted, her face strained.

"You heard the Thessian, hustle ass!" Shepard commanded as everyone pushed through the opening, Shepard and Tela clearing the corridor immedately as they passed through the biotically-opened door, pushing forward to let the rest of Team Valkyrie through. As soon as Garrus had finished getting through ,everyone on the other side, Dr. T'soni dropped her hand, and the door slammed shut, opening again, and closing as it had before. "Nice one, Indy." Shepard complimented the Asari. "What was that, exactly?"

"A stasis bolt." The Thessian replied, her voice a little exhausted. "We use it to slow things down. It can be taxing though; I am not as well-versed in biotica as, say, your Specters who train with them constantly."

"Every little bit helps, Doctor." Shepard replied honestly, looking to Tela, who nodded. "I gotta admit; biotics make me jealous. I wish I could do something like that." She told her lover, making Tela smirk at her. Shepard looked up the upward slope of the corridor that would hopefully lead them towards the Tram Repair Room sooner or later. Raising her rifle, she clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth to indicate that it was time to move on.

It took them another fifteen minutes to make it to the Tram Repair Room, and Shepard was full and ready to get the transportation device ready. She couldn't understand the layout of the USG _Ishimura_; was nothing close or even in a location that made sense? It seemed that she had to walk through at least fifteen doors just to reach the room that was shaped like a 'U'. The catwalk that she found herself on was damaged and scorched in certain places, several air ducts smashed inward from the walls of the ships' interior. Shepard stepped a few meters inside the room, inspecting everything with taclight, her Mark VII Assault Rifle, and her eyes, observing all. She paid particular attention to the scorch marks on the grating of the catwalks, and one particular section had her gasp a little bit.

It looked melted.

"What's wrong?" Tela asked, her own Mark VII pointed at the same thing that Shepard was. "It looks like acid burned through it… oh." The Thessian had seen some of her memories of LV 426, especially her nightmares. She knew what that would mean. Shepard looked back at her team, seeing Jondum, Garrus, and Rahe'Tarram all exchanging glances. They had all seen the reports of her actions on LV 426, and even the combat footage. The Counsel had taken the threat seriously, and even recruits were being made aware of what she and her Marines had faced on that moon. They knew without being told what acid damage where none was expected meant.

"Are we missing something?" Dr. Liara T'soni asked, looking towards the spot that was large enough for a man to fall through had been melted through the catwalks' grating. "Is this significant."

"It is." Shepard replied, sighing. "It's what I've feared to be; I just got solid confirmation of my fears; _them_."

"Um, giant radioactive ants?" Bastila Shan asked, confused.

"I wish."

* * *

"Holy… _shit_!" 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard swore as Team Valkyrie made their way to the USG _Ishimura's_ Maintenance Bay, a cavernous room filled with catwalks, a broken joist crane cradling what looked to be a skid, and the eerie presence of something gone wrong. The door had split apart to reveal the maze of grating, metal handrails, emergency lighting, and confusing layout as Shepard took three steps forward, Garrus Vakarian now at her side with his M92 Mantis sniper rifle in his talons, probing everything through his scope while Rahe'Tarram nar Sofis occupied the left-hand side of their triangular position, sweeping a catwalk with her Quarian Carbine Shotgun. The walkway spite into two directions, one heading straight and to the right, and the other to the left, meandering to what appeared to be an elevator somewhere passed the broken crane. The Maintenance Bay, unfortunately, was huge and filled with all sorts of locations for something to hide in. Tactically, it was a mess. "Are we literally going to trapeze through this entire _fucking_ ship for some dumb circuit board? What's next? Dirty laundry runs?"

_Calm yourself, Jane._ Tela Vasir's thoughts sifted through their bond, gentle and warm. _It does seem we are running in circles, but we do need that Tram running if we are to repair this ship and discover what transpired here._

_I _know_ what transpired here; the same fucking thing that transpired on LV 426._ Shepard lamented, her thoughts seething. They had walked by two more acid splashes from the Tram Repair Room to the Maintenance Bay after replacing the damaged Tram with a good one. They had yet to encounter a living soul, having checked every accessible room they passed, including offices, bathrooms, supply closets, and even maintenance ducts. Thankfully, they hadn't encountered any Xenomorphs, either, but Shepard knew that would only be a matter of time. _How long have they been here, has everyone been dragged off?_ Those thoughts colored her mind and her emotions as she pointed out Garrus, Rahe, Jondum Bau, and the Protheanologist Dr. Liara T'soni to head towards the straight direction to check it out while she, Tela Vasir, and Bastila Shan would sweep to the right. The Turian Specter nodded once with her hand signals, and the team split itself into two, checking both routes at the same time. _Is there a Queen in here? Eggs? Will we stumble across a colony or a hive?_ Shepard sadly had no answers as her anger and her despair swelled with in her, memories of LV 426 surfacing uglily. Shepard and Tela swept down their catwalk, finding the catwalk bridge that lead towards the cargo elevator to be stable enough while Bastila Shan stayed behind them, her hands gripping her A-33 Ardat Sub-Machine Gun tightly to her chest as the researcher dutifully kept close, her eyes nervously looking around. _Gods, I am so _stupid_, bringing a bunch of people will little combat training, and no experience with such things. Clearing ships? Being stranded? Half of us are ineffective towards such things, making the other half watch over them! _

_This is not so different from what normal Specter missions are like, Jane._ Tela told her as they began walking down the catwalk bridge, the barrels of their Mark VII Assault Rifles pointing down the catwalk, sweeping left and right, scanning everything with each step they took, both of their senses on overdrive. _We often go in knowing little, and try to bring as much of the necessary firepower we think we need, while supplementing as much skills we normally don't possess to compensate for our weakness. Sometimes, that means walking into a situation with the worst possible people for it. Sometimes, that person is you. Remind me to tell you about Pharye Myraria, the Ardat Yakshi that somehow managed to beat me and my team no less than four times… and lost to a bullheaded human Maiden._ That had Shepard snort, but she realized that Tela had never really told her about the creature the Marine had mistakenly thought as Tela Vasir, believing she had killed a Specter by choking her to death, and finishing the job with the corner edge of a desk lamp and the back of a Thessian skull. All she knew was that Ardat Yakski's scared the living piss out of the Asari in general, especially Matriarchs. What the hell scared thousand-year old women who possessed the strongest biotics in the galaxy? And how was she able to win in a simple fistfight? They reached the elevator, Shepard's weapon scanning where the catwalk lead passed the elevator, looping over towards where Garrus and his team had split off, her eyes following up where the elevator went, another catwalk above their heads some thirty meters up.

"Garrus? We're going to check out the upper floor. See if there's anything there." Shepard called out on her radio to the Turian.

"_Good. We found a locked door for the Bay Office, but we need an actual access card to get in."_ The Turian Specter replied, his duel-tone voice dry. _"Between a Quarian, a Salarian, and even my skills, we can't seem to get through this door. It looks like someone activated the magnetic lock and shut down the release mechanism on the other side. The only way we're getting in is with an access card or some breaching explosives."_

"What, a Turian without a grenade? That's like… as useful as a Batarian rape counselor!" Shepard teased, getting Tela chuckle and Jondum to snort over the radio. "We'll check upstairs for one. Maintenance Bays tend to have a lot of work stations, and its entirely plausible that a few exist, and one might just be lying about." She punched the access button for the lift labeled 'To Crane Control'. She waited as the elevator slowly descended from the second level, and it made her think that it could be possible someone might still be alive up there; if the elevator had been used to evacuate people, it would have remained on the level they were on! The thought obviously transferred over to Tela, who nodded as they stood to either side of the elevators' doors, their weapons ready as it reach their level, the doors sliding open to reveal an empty cargo elevator. Tela boarded first, and then the researcher Bastila after she was told to, Shepard getting on last as she hit the 'up' arrow, the doors of the elevator closing behind her, the lift rising to take them to the second level of the Maintenance Bay.

The doors opened to reveal a creature of shadows and darkness.

"Hey!" Shepard hollered, catching the attention of the obviously alien creature, shrieking in surprised as it turned to look at her. Once more, Shepard was struck by the _alienness_ of the thing; something that resembled nothing like anything anyone had ever seen in the galaxy, no similarities having ever been encountered before. It stood there on four limbs, a barely humanoid creature with rubbery-looking skin and a chitinous look to its sleek body. As soon as she got its attention, the creatures' long, curved head twitched over towards her, 'looking' at her with its eyeless head, its strange jaw dropping open as it let off a kiss of warning, its spine-like tail raising up in defense behind and above it, its spade-like tail aiming towards them. Unfortunately for the creature, it was fifteen meters away, across the second level's catwalk bridge, and Shepard was in no mood to fuck around. With years of reflex and practice behind her, drilled by OCS instructors and her own adopted family of N's, Shepard raised her Specter Gear Mark VII Assault Rifle, set to a double-tap burst of armor-piercing penetration with incendiary effect, her finger caressing the trigger of her rifle, speaking death twice in succession. The pair of rounds immediately slapped into the chest of the crouched creature, practically folding it in half from the force as it tumbled to the ground, the rounds immediately putting it down without exiting the back of the creature, containing its highly-acidic blood inside its own body.

"Fucking bugs." Shepard exhaled, her assault rifle scanning, looking for more, as well as using her ears. "Omnitool? Priority message, tag Royce, Stacy, and Cavius. Encountered Xenomorph, second level of Maintenance Bay, single drone. Armor-piercing, Incendiary very effective. End message."

"The picture didn't do it justice." Tela Vasir commented quietly as Shepard stepped off the elevator, seeing that her visor's radar hadn't picked up the Xeno; it hadn't been moving, after all. Both human and Asari swept and clear the second level, seeing that it was really just a straight walk towards a platform where a couple of work stations were located, as well as the corpse of the Xenomorph. They scanned everything as they approached the work stations, Shepard keeping an eye on the dark nooks and crannies of the area, anything that could fit a bug. She couldn't understand why this one lone drone was by itself, standing there in a location where there was no one else. Was it perhaps without its Queens' instructions? She remembered what she had done in Hadley's Hope, testing the drones while closing the North Gate door, figuring out that a drone without a Queen was pretty much useless. Was there no Queen? Had something happened to the hive or nest? It would make sense to see a drone merely react to a threat, as oppose to working. If there was no Queen, then perhaps there were survivors. The _Ishimura_ was easily a ship containing a thousand or more personnel; Shepard didn't enjoy the thought that every single one of them might be a host to chestbursters and drones. If a Queen had laid that many eggs, then she would have no choice but to destroy the ship to ensure none of them escaped. If the Queen was dead or partitioned off from the rest of her drones, then their job would be a little bit easier.

"Hey, found what looks to be an access card." Tela announced, walking by one of the work stations and spotting a card that had a magnetic strip on one side. "Says Bay Office. That's what Garrus says he needs."

"Well, I guess we can deliver it to him." Shepard replied, nodding, looking to Bastila Shan, who was gazing over and down towards the door that the others waited at. The researchers' face looked sour. "Something wrong, Jedi?"

"Li is… quite nervous." Bastila replied, looking back to the human Specter. "I can't tell why, though."

"Garrus? Come in?" Shepard called up on her radio, but found only static in response. "Damn this comm situation! We're only like… a hundred meters away! I could shout at them if I thought it was a good idea!" Tela snorted, though none of the women raised their voices; it was as Shepard said, it wasn't a good idea, especially if there were bugs nearby. "Fuck it. We're moving back to their position. If we're going to have to run around like a bunch of headless chickens to fix every single problem on this ship, this is going to be one _long_ mission." Shepard grumped, shaking her head. The _Ishimura_ was close to two and a half kilometers long, but once one factored in all the routes, catwalks, maintenance tunnels, and hallways, the ship could easily have as much thirty to forty kilometers of paths inside of it, just begging for ambushes and choke points to be cleared. A ship this size would logistically need a battalion to clear if one didn't mind missing certain locations and possibly losing half of their forces. Two battalions would be better, yet she was having to do it with a platoon-sized element, and a good number of her people weren't even combat rated! Shepard seethed on the inside, the situation that they found themselves in one she found herself truly afraid to be in. She had dragged Ripley into this mess, her last remaining family member, and Newt's only other guardian. Several of her classmates weren't military or even close to it, and now they were in a completely hostile situation much like LV 426. At least at Hadley's Hope, almost everyone was trained in marksmanship and teamwork. In the _Ishimura_ most everyone was working together for the first time with the exception of her Marines, as well as Garrus Vakarian and Asha T'vara, who had been involved in some incident with Separatists and some invisible hunter on the Turian colony of Taetarus. Her decisions could get them killed.

Broken ship undoubtedly stuffed filled with bugs, and she carted all of them right into the middle of it with no clear way out.

_Your class knew what they may have been walking into when they agreed to join the mission, Jane._ Tela told her through their bond, trying to calm the Marine. _Your grandmother knew, too. Plans go astray all the time; the true measure of a leader is making the best out of a bad situation. And you haven't been doing bad._

_Say that when you're looking at a horde of these things, or you see a facehugger attached to someone._ Jane thought back, her mind resisting the calmness that the Thessian was trying to share. _This ship either needs to be quarantined or to be scuttled; if Xenomorphs are here, then it is likely that everyone is infected, or they are being hunted for that purpose. We got lucky that this is a human ship, Tela; I saw the imagery of what the other forms of Xenos make when it is a Turian host, or an Asari one. We haven't faced them… and I'm not looking forward to the thought of facing one, either._

_Come, let us regroup with Garrus._ Tela thought, her patience with Shepard still amazing the Marine at times. _At least if we are all together, the possibility of us solving any issues that arise will be that much greater. _

The elevator ride down to the first floor was thankfully uneventful as Shepard and Tela Vasir cleared the walkways towards the Bay Office, finding Garrus, Rahe'Tarram, Jondum, and Dr. Liara T'soni standing by the locked door in a holding pattern, weapons at the ready, though the Protheanologists' M9 Tempest was merely cradled in her hands as oppose to the more ready lowered barrels of her Turian, Quarian, and Salarian counterparts. Shepard could easily tell that the Doctor seemed spooked about something by the way she looked around the Maintenance Bay, her eyes darting about. Though she was still learning alien facial expressions from her fellow Specters, Shepard could see that Garrus' mandibles were clamped tight to his jaw; a clear sign that a Turian was aggitated about something.

"We found the card key." Shepard announced quietly, approaching Garrus as she had her Specter Gear Mark VII Assault Rifle at the ready. "Anything to report?"

"We've been hearing what sounds like movement in the vents behind the walls." The Turian replied softly, his flanged voice clearly focused, Shepard recalling that Garrus Vakarian was a Blackwatch Talon Leader who had lost his entire squad killing some sentient being that hunted them all down before joining the Office of Special Tactics. Bastila Shan had rejoined Dr. Liara T'soni, and Shepard noted that the human researcher was fretting over her bondmate, trying to comfort her. That was good. "Sounds like talons on metal, like a _revka_ scurrying."

"We saw a Xenomorph on the second floor, human drone-type, by itself." Shepard told the Turian Specter, watching his mandibles drop slightly. "Shot and killed it, but I think it wasn't receiving anything; it was merely standing there as oppose to searching or working. Either it couldn't smell a Queen, or there's no Queen to smell. Perhaps someone got lucky and cut it off from the rest of its brood, turning the drones into no more than dumb beasts. Or perhaps it got killed or ejected off the ship. Either way, one bug means we have an idea what happened to the crew of this ship; captured and taken for those unarmed, and whoever fought back was probably killed, perhaps captured and taken."

"Spirits. I saw the footage of that colony of yours." Garrus replied, shaking his fringed head. "Attrition tactic will work best as long as we have the space to retreat by fire. They pin us in a dead end…"

"I've got grenades. I'm not waking up with something on my face, and neither will anyone else." Shepard replied, her tone cold and filled with steel. The Turian, thankfully, merely nodded and took her at her word. "They strike from shadows and love ambushes. Unfortunately, that's about ever fifth step on this ship. Let's get this damn circuit board and get the Tram running. I want all my people the fuck off this ship as soon as possible. _Dohn ma?_"

"All except that last bit." The Turian replied, amused.

* * *

They got the Tram running in good order.

1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard sighed as she sat down on one of the seats of the Tram Train of the USG _Ishimura, _the stress taking its toll on her as the monorail car ambled its way towards the Bridge of the planet-fracking vessel. Everyone had gotten on board with ease, the car meant to service the thousand or so people that worked on the mining vessel, so the twenty-five Specters, Marines, and civilians of various species were able to fit in the one-hundred person car with ease, even Naor the Bull had no issues, the Elcor Specter taking his place at one of the ends so as to avoid clogging up the car in case of an emergency.

"Janey, you doin' okay?" Captain Royce Mason asked quietly, sitting next to her, the Australian-born N7 looking at her with concerned eyes. "You lookin' thin, 'gel."

"Stress." Shepard admitted, wincing as she rotated her neck, having spent the past three hours getting the Tram up-and-running, clearing every hallways and room along the way. Such operations took its toll even on those trained for such activities, and even N's had their limits. The fact that they were badly underpowered and in the middle of a worse case scenario wasn't improving her mood. "Clearing this boat's gonna take time, Uncle. I don't even know if we actually can considering its size and the numbers we've got. The fact that I saw a Xeno throws a big ole monkey wrench in the shit sandwich."

"Not your first rodeo with the bugs, Janey." The older man replied, his tone reassuring. "We ain't blind and dumb this time, and you made a good call makin' sure we had the best possible equipment. Hell, even the Specter recruits know what we're facin', so no one's gonna be surprised if it comes time to do a bug hunt save for our nerds." Shepard merely grunted, and found herself looking at Ellen Ripley, her grandmother standing with Sergeant Dwayne Hicks, talking to the Marine about something.

"Something else is bothering me, Royce. Probably the same thing that's on your mind." Shepard admitted, feeling a little overwhelmed by it all. "I'm doing my best to focus on this mission, but… Earth. I keep thinking about Earth."

"Me too, 'gel." The N7 admitted as well, her voice sounding tired. "Janey, me and Val were talkin', and you're probably not gonna like what I have to say." She looked to her adopted Uncle, a feeling of wariness coming over her. "If there's gonna be a war on Earth, and the Counsel is gonna help… Janey, you're gonna have to sit this fight out."

"_What?_" Her voice was a little too loud, garnering everyone's attention for a moment, making Shepard's cheeks go hot momentarily. As soon as everyone returned to their own conversations and thoughts, Shepard returned her attention to Royce. "You're going to sit me out?" Her voice seethed with anger and confusion, feeling like a child in time-out.

" 'Gel, you got somethin' more important t'do than run around a damn ship like some fool wombat wit' its head cut off." The N7 replied, his tone gentle. "This isn't me sittin' you out 'cuz you've done somethin' wrong or I think I can do better. I'm sittin' you out because you _need_ to arrive on Arcturus alive, Janey. The fate of Earth probably jus' got dumped on your shoulders, and we can't afford to have the one human being the Counsel gives a damn about gettin' herself killed over somethin' trivial. Think the Counsel will hand the Citadel Fleets to the likes of me? Val? Anderson? Grissom?" The Australian-born man asked, and Shepard felt cold logic cutting through her emotions; Royce was making a point. "If you're not there, Janey, then it will be a Turian at the head o' that Fleet, and how do you think the Alliance is goin' to like that? Or the people of Earth? That happens, and there will be no rescuin' Earth. We need you alive and well, 'gel. Earth needs you."

"Gods… what am I suppose to say to that?" Shepard murmured, shaking her head. "I know that you're right, Uncle, I just… I just don't like being forced to the back of things while watching my friends and family go into danger while I'm tucked in, snugged as a bug." She went quiet, closing her eyes, thinking of the last day her mother was alive, Commander Amanda 'Ripper' Shepard tucking her only child into a lifepod as action station alarms rang throughout the SSV _Iwo Jima_. None of the other four children on-board had been put into a lifepod, having dutifully gone to whatever quarters they were assigned to. For Amanda and Jane Shepard, merely hitching a ride on the _Iwo Jima_ to her mother's new position as XO of the SSV _Shasta_, they had no berths, and her mother had put Jane in the one place she would most likely remain safe during an attack.

Less than ten seconds later, Shepard watched the gun deck of the _Iwo Jima_ explode with a hull breach, sucking out Navy and Marine personnel… including her mother.

"Look, Janey, we ain't shuntin' ya out or nothin'; we're lookin' big picture here." The N7 explained gently, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Yeah, I don't like the thought of ya runnin' about, puttin' you in danger, but you're a big sheila, and I know you can kick some ass. But Earth… Earth's more important, and _she_ needs you, Janey; humanity needs you. We're headin' to the bridge to fix this damn comms issue, and then me, Val, and Cavius are gonna lead the better blokes through the ship to fix it up and get us outta this jam while you lead us through with the ships' schematics and what-not."

"Fine." Shepard couldn't argue against it. She knew she would lose. "I'll watch the kids while you and Aunt Val go booze and whore your way through town."

"See? Knew you was a good kid." Royce smiled. "Looks like we're makin' our stop up here."

"_Welcome to… Bridge Deck."_ The Tram's helpful VI voice announced as the Tram slowed to a stop, reaching the Tram platform that was eerily empty. Captain Royce Mason and Master Chief Stacy Valentino were the first through the opening doors, scanning the platform for hostiles as Cavius Reminion stood in between them, doing the same thing, scanning the ceiling. Clearing the platform, everyone else on the Tram exited the vehicle as the two N7's began to move their way to the platform's only door, helpfully marked 'To Bridge' above it on its electronic marquee. Shepard stood alongside Tela Vasir near the back, closing the door to the Tram first so nothing could go in, and keeping an eye on the rear, her Serrice Counsel armor's radar still pinging only twenty-five signals on her Kuwashii visor's HUD, all blue icons to denote friendlies. The door to the bridge opened, and Specters and Marines entered into the Bridge Deck, seeing one door leading to the Command portion of the Bridge, while the other door lead to the Helm. Royce checked the door to the Helm to see if it was unlocked, and activated the door, both N7's clearing what appeared to be a chamber with several lifepods connected to it, leading to another door. Royce and Stacy went into that room too while Shepard stayed on the Tram platform with Tela and Naor the Bull, covering their rear, hating the fact that she was shunted back in the rear like some POG.

"_Janey, we got ourselves a beachhead."_ Royce's thick Australian accent came over the radio, alerting her to the news. "_Have everyone file in."_

"Let's go make ourselves at home." Shepard told everyone who was still on the platform, having held back in a defensive pattern while the two N7's and the Specter Instructor cleared ahead. Everyone filed into the Helm, and Shepard was the last one in, closing and locking the pressure door behind her to find herself in a fairly large room with a bank of ceramic glass in the front for a front view of the planet Aegis VII looming, as well as the asteroid belt that prevented them from leaving. Thankfully, the Helm was large enough for all twenty-five of them, even if there weren't enough seats for everyone. It was as Royce said; it was a beachfront. "Royce, you go through the teams and see who you want." Shepard told the N7 as she stood next to him. "I'll see if we can get the Helm up and running, see if we can fix the comms and the computers. Hopefully, we can get an updated status on what happened to this ship and its crew in terms of time and information."

"Sounds like a plan." The Australian-born man nodded as Shepard moved to the Helm itself, where a pilot's workstation was located. Turning on the workstation, the VIOS clicked on as the haptic monitor chimed to life, and the green-tinted face of a human woman with orange eyes came onto the screen.

"W-w-welCOME, u-u-user." The synthetic voice came, the face on the screen miming the words. "This is _This is_-_is-issssszzzzzzz…._ *Crackle* System Hyper-Optimized Data Access Network (Network). The c-crew refers (refers) to me-e-e as SHODAN. How may-may-may-may *Warble* I assist (may I assist)?"

A/N: Sorry about the long delay. Being sick and not to mention I did about 150,000 words in three weeks on this and Hadley's Hope, I think I needed the Brain Break!

Originally, this was going to be a walkthrough of Dead Space, and the original chapter ended up pegging some 20,000 words. It was dry and not at all engaging. So I trashed it and rewrote it, learning a thing or two from Bethesda Studios about Fast Traveling. Don't worry, Shepard isn't sitting out the whole fight. Just a lot less running around the _Ishimura_ like hamsters on wheels.

* * *

T.J. is the tentative name of Rita Vrataski and Tip Crowe's child. Short for Tip Junior.

Ardat Yakshi's, for their reputation, weren't displayed as great as they could have been in the Mass Effect Universe. I've seen a lot of ideas on the Demons of the Nightwind, but a biotically strong sex vampire just doesn't seem quite as terrifying as they could have been. The ability to drain biotics and use it against an Asari was an idea of mine to make them more frightening… and also to explain why Jane Shepard could survive one, and defeat on in a simple fistfight.

Synthetic Hyper-Optimized Data Access Network, or SHODAN of System Shock fame, may induce panic into some of you. Sadly, trying to _type_ her words is a lot harder than listening to that synthetic garble garbage she spoke. For an idea of how she speaks, YouTube 'SHODAN Speaks'.


	8. 8: SHODAN

_Disclaimer: BioWare owns Mass Effect. 20th Century Fox owns the __Alien__ franchise. EA owns Dark Space._

**Hades Nexus Cluster, February 23, 2177**

1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard sat at the pilot's chair, looking at the VI personification of SHODAN, the USG _Ishimura_'s ship-wide computer VI database, feeling relieved to find that something still worked upon the planet-fracker. If the ships' computers had been down, the chances of them escaping would have been slim-to-none. Seeing the VI still active was a relief, though the way it talked indicated that there might have been damage done to her core processors at one point in time. She wasn't sure if the presence of the bugs had damaged the ship, or some form of sabotage had occurred, but there was evidence enough that something had happened to the _Ishimura_.

"Hello, SHODAN." Shepard spoke to the VI, seeing that she had the option to address it with speech instead of just text requests. "I am 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard of the System Alliance Marine Corps, sent by the Alliance to investigate the _Ishimura_. There seems to be a situation on board. Can you give me a status update on the ship, as well as the ships' logs?"

"_P-p-p-process-ziiiinnnnnggggggg….._" The VI spoke, its voice modulator distorting and acting out-of-sync with normal speech patterns. Someone had done a number on the system, it seemed to Shepard. "_Error (error). Unrecognized personnel o-on BOARD _Ishimura_ (_ishimura_). P-p-please contact Command Personnel-nel for access-zz of ship protocol._"

"Fuck." Shepard grunted, accessing her Omnitool, the red holographic display going to her home page. She cued in her Specter Access Codes, inputting them in to reroute the security clearance, changing a subroutine of the root password by addling lines of code that would have her access as a master authorized user, creating a whole subfile that would read her as apart of the Command Personnel, along with a password to make it official. Queuing up the program, she slid her Omnitool into the workstations' dock, entering the code manually as oppose to wirelessly; a direct connection to such a system as the _Ishimura's_ was needed as human Corporations generally made such servers impossible to access off-network to avoid hacking and data infiltrations.

"_A-a-access…. Process (process) upLOAD in sync-nc._" The VI spoke, its malfunctioning voice stuttering and fluctuating. "_WARNING (warning) un-un-unauthorized user accesssssss-zzzzz $^&amp;#…. Synchronization complete, access-zz of SHIP protocol (protocol) au-au-authorized. Hello (hello), A-a-agent Jane Shepard._"

"SHODAN, please bring up ships' logs, status update, and location of crew to pilot's Helm." Shepard spoke to the work station, pulling her Omnitool out as she felt pleased that she was able to hack into the VIOS. She was by no means a programmer or software specialist, and she was afraid to have Rahe'Tarram or Cur Dileed hack into the system. It was obvious that the VI was already corrupted or damaged by the sound of its speech program. Having someone hacking into a VI could have corrupted it worse and shut it down completely, leaving them without access to the computer servers, or even its data.

"_C-c-c-complying._" SHODAN responded, the haptic display starting to bring up folders and access nodes onto the work station for Shepard to access. "_W-w-warning. Data co-co-corruption (corruption) detect-t-t-tttted. Please recalibrate (calibrate) persona-a-ality SUITE to reload host data (data)._"

"Oh, fucking hell." Shepard looked over to Captain Royce Mason, who had been standing to one side of her as she booted the ship's VIOS. "It's like someone loaded a damn virus into the poor thing. I hate the thought of hacking into the servers and making it worse, but we might have to. It'll give us access to the ship, its logs, maybe even locate the _Ishimura_ personnel. At the least, we know where the hive might be located if there is one."

"I say do it." Royce nodded, mulling it over. "Without it, we'd be goin' through this ship blind and dumb. If all we got to do is play blender with a VIOS, then that's what we got to do. See what you can do t'make it happen, 'gel, and we'll see what we can find. Maybe we can fix the bloody ship from here."

"Since when has our luck run that good, Uncle?" Shepard asked, amused. That had Royce snort. "Go get your teams ready. I'll play with the system here and reboot it; even I should be able to do that. By the time you're done with marching orders, we should have something working for us for a change." She watched as the Australian-born N7 moved towards the room containing the lifepods, conferring with Master Chief Stacy Valentino and Specter Instructor Cavius Reminion to see how they would split the teams and saddle her with the support personnel as Shepard turned back to the Helm's workstation, her attention on the malfunctioning VIOS. "SHODAN? Master reboot personality suite and reload host data for full-spectrum access of core data. Master user permission and access granted."

"_V-v-verifying (fying)_." The synthesized voice confirmed, beeping several times as Shepard watched the screen flicker, the imagine of the green-tinged woman's face with its orange eyes disappearing for a few moments before coming back on. An inverted blue-grey cone appeared first, slowly loading upwards to red; an unusual loading bar, Shepard thought as she watched it slowly fill completely red, indicating that the reboot was finished. The digitized face reappeared, the screen flickering several times before resetting itself to normalcy, the VIOS's digitized feminine face staring back at her. "_W-w-welCOME, Lieutenant (tenant) Shep-shepard. How may-may-mayyyyyyyaaaaaiiii *Warble* I assist (assist)?_"

"Finally getting somewhere!" Shepard whooped, smiling. Finally something was going right! Sure, it still sounded like the sound card had been chucked in a blender, but now the VI recognized her, and wasn't giving her any crap about access issues. That was a step in the right direction. "SHODAN? I need access to the ships' logs, an update to the ships' status, the location of crew, and we need ship-wide communication access. There is an emergency, and we are emergency responders with the Alliance Military Command." Most human-made VI's were made with a military node just in case Marines or sailors had to access parts of the ships' network for emergency protocols, which Shepard was accessing now. It should give them unprecedented access through the ship, Shepard thought to herself as she chewed her bottom lip; unlocked doors, command nodules through the bridge, the ability to repair any software malfunctions throughout the ship… the works. Even the Corporations understood that not everything went according to plan, and that the men and women in Blue had to rescue the day somehow. "Let's start with this communications issue, SHODAN. We need to find out what is causing the distortion or interference that is preventing my team from communicating from one another. Analysis?"

"_Process-cess-cessing, PLEASE hold._" The VI told her as the face flickered a few times, the network still sadly trashed. Shepard pondered what could have happened to the VIOS; they were usually well-protected from data-manipulation, and the physical servers themselves were usually protected by iridium-reinforced steel. If someone had infected SHODAN, they would have had to built a worm virus specified for it, and the Corporations were usually quite paranoid about their data network accesses, and would have made sure it had the latest protection and defenses. Shepard's first thought was the involvement of another Corporation; hostile takeover. It made sense… but why a planet-fracker? Even if the Concordance Extraction Corporation had found something, she doubted there would be anything of note or worth on a vessel that was essentially the modern-day version of a whaler. True, the system was an unsurveyed system, and potential goldmines could exist in such places like the Yanlat System, but that would mean someone would have had to been on the _Ishimura_ before; no one would be able to load a virus through a communications hub in fear of discovery or the garbling of transmission due to size and time. In order to do so, someone had to have been on the ship, or transferred onto it. But that would mean they (whoever 'they' were) would possibly be stuck on the ship as well.

_A damaged VI, a Prothean Beacon-device, Xenomorphs, a busted-up ship, and us in the middle of it._ Shepard thought to herself as she shook her heard, contemplating it. This all means something; something happened here, and these can't all be coincidences. Perhaps the ships' logs will give me some insights. Timelines. What went down, and when. When the bugs were first discovered. What started this comedy of errors?

"_Lieu-lieu-lieutenant? Analysis (ALYSIS) completed-ded-ded._" The VI intoned from the workstation. "_Ph-ph-physical server disconnection (disconnection) nodessssszzzzz….. 1 through 35, communications. Inter-ter-ternal sensor ARRAY disconnection nodes… 1 through 14. Signal interference due to com-com-component physical error (error). Please contact MAINTENANCE p-p-personnel to check connections for optimum performance (mance). Error! Ship'sssszzzz log access unavailable, physical SERVER disconnection, primary re-re-relay_."

"Sounds like we got us some walkin' to do." Royce commented, Master Chief Stacy Valentino coming up from behind him, grunting in agreement as she folded her arms across her chest. "We got our teams set up, 'gel. If you can get us the locations and how t' get there, we'll have Dingo, Cowboy, and Ghost head t' each one and fix the issues there. We get those up, we should restore enough access t' the ship where we can actually do our jobs effectively. Being able to tease you over the radio would be a bonus."

"Uncle…" Shepard growled, making Stacy laugh as she went over and ruffled her fiery red hair, making the Marine cry out in admonishment. "Who are you leaving me with?"

"Tela and Rahe'Tarram for primary defense, the Protheanologists, Porol, Cur Dileed, Ripper, Bitch and Tibevius." Stacy replied, making Shepard nod slowly. With the exception of Tela Vasir, Rahe'Tarram nar Sofis, Sergeant Rita Vrataski and herself, none of the others had any real combat training, only simple firearms familiarization and proficiency. Four out of ten shooters wasn't the best of odds in case of an emergency. Still, at least they all had high-grade weaponry and armor. That alone should make up for most of the others' short-comings.

"Well, go out and have fun fixing the ship while I sit here and play Minesweeper."

* * *

Boredom; a soldiers' constant companion and worst enemy. 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard sat at the helm of the USS _Ishimura_ as she fiddled with the ships' computer, SHODAN interjecting occasionally with status updates of the vessels' many problems. Communications were still down, but thankfully, Omnitool text-burst was still in full swing, and Shepard was receiving updates from Master Chief Stacy Valentino, Captain Royce Mason, and Specter Instructor Cavius Raminion periodically as they went through the ship to restore some of its functions. The rest of Team Valkyrie stayed at the Helm Room, safe and secure for the moment. Rahe'Tarram nar Sofis had somehow managed to remember to bring a deck of cards, and a rather intense game of Skyllian Five was now in full swing, the Quarian Specter Recruit facing off the pilot Tibevius Victonius, Sergeant Rita Vrataski, and Specter Recruit Porol Lamal. Unfortunately, everyone was in full cheating mode; the Salarian was a card-counter, the Quarian had extra cards stuffed in her suit, the Turian growled and threatened everyone, and the N3 blatantly called out on everyone's tricks while trying to slip extra credits from Lamal's ever-growing pot. Thosw who weren't playing were engaged as well; Cur Dileed had a wager with Bastila Shan on every hand deal on who would be the winner of said hand, while her grandmother Ellen Ripley and Doctor Liara T'soni commented on the game, trying to guess what lie or cheat would be used next by whom. The only one who wasn't involved besides Shepard was Tela Vasir, who was sitting on the floor in what the Human Specter called the 'Asari Lotus Position' the Asari Specter obvious meditating. It was something that Tela tried to do every day if time permitted, and Shepard wondered if it were an Asari thing, with their incredibly long life spans, or if it was something that Tela merely come across to find her own personal sense of peace.

_You're brooding, Dhan'rana._ Tela thought to her, the Specters' eyes never opening as she sat there on the cold, hard deck of the floor, still in her meditative trance. _At least the others are distracting themselves and occupying their time. You, my young Maiden, are brooding. That isn't helping anything._

_I don't feeling I am helping anything._ Shepard admitted through the bond that she shared with Vasir, her mood dark and depressed. _I… never liked this part, the waiting. I spent years waiting for Pop when he was off on missions, helpless and powerless when I was a kid. At least Mom was on the ship whenever we were assigned, and I could technically see her whenever I wanted. Now? I feel like I'm trapped again. I hate that feeling._

_I understand, Jane. I truly do._ The Specter replied as she opened her blue-violet eyes, her gaze going to the human woman she had bonded with. _When I was part of a Commando Team, my Sisters were just that; my Sisters. There was one incident on some airless rock where one Huntress, Aleea D'hana, was trapped in a cave-in, separated from us. I remember, the three of us trying to biotically lift the boulders away to get to her, our air supplies limited. She… she put a pistol to her head and ended her life for our sakes as we had a quarter-hour remaining of breathable air to spare us from dying trying to save her. I… I had never known such pain and turmoil as I did that day, beating on a rock to rescue a woman I considered family. When I see your memories of the Iwo Jima, I can't imagine how you endured that as a child. I was two centuries old, and Aleea's death had a profound effect on me. You were forced to watch your own mother die in front of you, trapped in a lifepod in the void at less than a decade of age. Never doubt your own strength, Jane Catherine Shepard, for you are both a survivor and a warrior._

_I… thank you, Tel._ The Marine replied, feeling a little bit better. _How do you do that, always seeming to know the right thing to say? Asari wisdom in action?_

_After about six hundred years or so of mistakes to learn from, one would think I would have learned a thing or two._ Shepard could feel the smirk coming from the Asari. _You kind has its own wisdom, Maiden, do not doubt the strength that Humanity possesses. Just look at your actions upon LV 426, or even little Rebecca Jorden's. I believe you said that your people are at their very best when they are looking in the very face of the worst odds. From what little I've read about Earth's history, I would have to agree._ The Matriarch opened her eyes, and looked Shepard. _Jane? There is something I need to tell you. Something… difficult. Away from the others._

Shepard nodded as she stood from the Helm, walking toward the escape room that held the lifepods behind the Helm Room as Tela followed her. She gave Rahe a glare when she heard the synthsized version of kissing coming from the Quarians' vocalizer, making most in the Helm chuckle as both Human and Asari Specter stepped through the hatch and Vasir pushed the button that would close it behind them. The Thessian slowly turned to Shepard, taking a deep breath, and she realized that she couldn't feel anything through their bond; only silence. Yet she could see that Tela was bothered by something. What was wrong?

"Jane, I… I must confess to you about something that… a mistake that I have made." The Asari Specter began, taking another deep breath.

"_Dhan'rana_, I am an Operative of the Shadow Broker."

* * *

1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard stood there in the small room, partitioned away from everyone else, as the words that Matriarch Tela Vasir had spoken washed over her, her brain finally catching up with what the Asari Specter had said… and all that it implied. Shepard, of course, knew _of_ the Shadow Broker; a mysterious information broker that was linked to criminal organizations, espionage, intrigue, assassinations, and a whole slue of crimes. No one knew who the Shadow Broker was, or even his race, but all feared him appropriately. That Tela Vasir would admit to it… there was no denying that it was considered treason according to Citadel Law and the Specter's own Code.

"Oh my Gods, you're not kidding me, are you?" Shepard asked, feeling her voice breaking slightly as she looked at the Asari, seeing the seriousness on her blue face. The woman that she loved… worked for the Shadow Broker? "Why are you telling me this? Why now?"

"Two reasons; one good, and one bad." Vasir admitted, closing her eyes for a moment. "When we were clearing some of the hallways, I noted some marks that usually indicate a Network Center for an Operative to use. It is possible that we might be able to send out a message through the Broker's Network for help, even with everything else that has gone wrong. As I understand it, it uses different protocols and technologies that we do not use for our Omnitools or our communicators. It is a possibility that I wanted to bring up, but…" The Thessian paused, seemingly trying to hunt for the right words. "I don't know how else to tell anyone without persecution but you, Jane. I trust this to you."

"Oh Gods, Tela…" Shepard rubbed her face with both hands, the stress inside of her having just jumped about a thousand percent. "You're telling me that you've been working for the Shadow Broker while as a member of Special Tactics? How long?"

"95 years." The Thessian replied, and the Human Specter did the math; Tela had been a Specter for 104 years. "I should tell you the story, I just… I don't know how. It is painful to me, and it is linked to the reason why I became a Specter in the first place."

Shepard found herself looking at the Thessian woman standing in front of her; no, staring at her. Every emotion was in turmoil inside of her, raging in her soul as she looked at the woman who had confessed to her. What she had admitted to was punishable by death! And she just went and told Shepard this! Why?

"Tela… you have been patient with me." Shepard began slowly, working hard to control herself. "I can't imagine that our relationship has been easy for you, me knowing so little of your kind, and dealing with my own emotional and racial obstacles. I… will let you explain, and I will listen. I just… please do not tell me that everything that you've said to me was a lie." That fear had come to her, large and maddening.

"No, not that." The Asari quickly shook her head, her face determined. "It is next to impossible to lie to a bondmate. I could perhaps hide something, but eventually you would have discovered it on your own, _dhan'rana_. What we have between us is true, but this I would rather you hear it from me, that I earn the opportunity to explain it to you, so that you may understand why I did it. It wasn't out of greed, or power, or anything so trivial as that.

"Jane, I did it out of love."

_On the planet of Illum, Detective Tela Vasir of the Illum's Security and Investigations Office found herself falling in love._

_The Matron had been a Detective on the Asari-ran planet for fifty years, and found her job to be enjoyable. She hunted criminals, investigated crimes, and generally filled her days with work. Yet all that changed when she was seeing her four hundred and fiftieth year, when she met Soyen T'mala. Soyen had just hit her Matron years, a business woman working for Illium Exports as a negotiator. How they had met was a simple thing, really; Tela had investigated what looked to be fraudulent corporate espionage, and somewhere along the way, Soyen was a witness to the crime. Somewhere, during the investigation, the Detective had found herself thinking of the Asari business woman, and took a risk asking her out on a date. Much to her surprise and relief, Soyen said yes._

_For fifty years, life for the couple was bliss._

_Tela had never really been in love before; flings, a few romances, but none had ever lasted a decade. Yet with Soyen, Tela knew she had found the one; the one she wanted to be with, to bond with, even father daughters for. Every morning, she woke feeling lucky to have Soyen, and she went to be holding onto the Asari business woman, grateful to have her. She was even preparing things to ask her to bond with Tela._

_And then a stranger went and ruined it all._

_There had been no signs, no clues, and no warning the day Soyen had answered her door to a stranger. Tela never did understand how it came to be that she opened her door to someone she didn't know, all the Detective knew was that she came home to find Soyen in the grips of something dangerous, something deadly._

_An Ardat-Yakshi._

_Decades of police work and being a Commando had Tela's Carnifax pistol out of her holster, pointing at the filthy creature, but it was already too late. The Asari Detective had never fought one of the Demons of the Night Winds, so she didn't understand the dangers, just the legends. She tried forming a barrier to protect herself… and felt herself being drained of her biotic energies, sapped by the creature. Tela gasped as she felt weakened, her very will being sapped out of her as the Demon sucked her of her natural defenses and offenses, leaving her weakened and with a heavy pistol in her hand._

"_So sweet when they try to fight back, isn't it?" The Arat-Yakshi asked Soyen, shivering in the grips of the creature as it licked the side of her face sensually. "Poor little Matron, so ignorant. Did you not know that we Demons can drain you of your biotics when you try to use them? You should have shot at me first; we can't generate our own. No matter, now I have yours." The throwback smiled as Tela got onto rubbery legs, aiming her pistol at the thing._

"_Back, Demon. Unhand her!" Tela growled, her sights on the creature's head._

"_Whatever you say, Detective." The stranger replied, a bulb of blue energy growing in her hand as she launched it at Tela. The Asari Detective went with natural instinct and tried to protect herself with her own biotics… but found nothing to use. The bolt hit her in the chest, and she was slammed backwards into the wall of the house, knocking her to the floor, causing her to lose her breath. Tela groaned as she tried to get up, looking at Soyen's fearful eyes as the creature took her love's face in her filthy hands._

"_I would love to play with you, Detective, but I did not come here to toy with my food." The Demon spoke as her eyes grew dark, ready to meld. "I simply came by for a quick snack."_

"_NO!" Tela screamed, trying to scramble to her feet as another bolt of biotic energy hit her, freezing her body in stasis as she looked on in horror, unable to move or talk. The Demon smiled at her, her dark eyes returning to Soyen, who trembled with fear as the Ardat-Yakshi began to forcemeld with her, the Asari beginning to spasm and convulse in her hands as the creatures' consciousness joined with her own. Tela fought the stasis with all her might, trying to move her body, trying to access her biotics, but nothing worked. She watched, unable to turn her head, as the creature melded with the woman she loved, Soyen's body shaking so violently that the Detective could hear her bones snapping, flecks of blue-purplish blood splattering about as Soyen T'mala bled from her nose, eyes and ears. It seemed to last for an eternity, yet the convulsing stopped, and the Ardat-Yakshi simply let go of the Asari in front of her, watching as she slumped to the ground, dead._

"_Oh my, that was a tasty morsel." The Demon smiled, sauntering her way towards Tela, a predatory grin upon her face. "She loved you dearly, you know? I could taste it on her memories. She was prepared to ask to bond with you, to mother your daughters. It looks like I came just in time to savor it." Tela's answer had no words, just a primal scream that started from the very bottom of her soul as anguish and rage echoed out. "Oh, how delightful, Detective! I can't wait to play this game! Hunt me down, little Asari, and I will very much look forward to savoring our next meeting… along with your life."_

"And that's how I met Pharye Myraria."

1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard stood there, feeling the pain that Tela was emanating through her bond, unable to control it as grief and sadness saturated the Thessian's soul. She didn't even think it over; Shepard merely encircled her arms around the smaller Asari woman and held her tightly as Tela began to cry, holding her as the six-century old Specter wallowed in her grief. Shepard could tell that Tela had never told anyone this, that she was first the Asari had shared it with, the thought radiating through their bond as Shepard felt her own emotions rocked by it, wanting to cry herself.

"That's why you did it? To hunt her down?" Shepard asked, still holding the woman she loved. "You became a Specter to hunt her down. You made a deal with the devil to finish the job."

"I… couldn't find her." Tela admitted, pulling her head from the cusp of Shepard's shoulder, wiping at her tears. "Then a Broker Operative came to me, told me how Pharye had earned the wrath of the Broker, yet the last three unit he had sent had failed. Told me that they needed an Asari who was bold enough to face one of the Ardat-Yakshi down, one who wasn't ignorant to their threat. I… agreed. I had been trying to find her for nine years without any luck, but it was believed that the Shadow Broker's Network was even more extensive than the Specters. I just… I wanted her dead."

"_Dhan'rana_, I understand." The Human Specter replied, and she did understand; what she would have done to hunt down the Batarians that killed her mother! "I am not sorry that I killed that bitch, I'm just sorry you weren't there to see it."

"I saw your memories of it." Tela correct her, a small smile on her lips. "Watching you choke the life out of her was quite satisfying the first time I glimpsed it in your sleep. So was bashing the back of her head in with a lamp. I quite approve." That had Shepard chuckle. "Yet the moment I realized that Pharye was dead, I felt… I felt this weight lift off me, and I wasn't disappointed that it wasn't my hands that did the deed. I saw the footage when you first arrived at the Citadel, and when I realized you had killed her… all I felt was relief. I didn't understand why at first, why I wasn't mad that someone took my revenge away from me, but I do now. While my reason to hunt her down was right, how I did it was not. I had lost the right to do it, while you had killed her defending a child. If anyone deserves praise for what they had did, I want you to know that I thank you for doing what I could not. I fear nothing more in this galaxy than Ardat-Yakshis. They are our genetic predators, our downfall. Perhaps that is why a lone Human Marine was able to beat her when so many Asari fail."

"I didn't have any biotics to steal; I can see why that would throw you off your game." Shepard admitted. It was like someone taking her guns and using them against her. "I bet she stole this armor just to lure you in, never changed the name because she got off on it. Godsdamn monster. Glad I bashed her head in and nuked her body. Bitch."

"Jane, I tell you this because… because I know what I did was wrong, but I put it on the mantle of trying to stop… what is it that you humans call it? The greater of two evils?" To that Shepard slowly nodded her head as Tela Vasir continued. "I traded what was more precious to me for the sakes of revenge, yet the Broker never did more than just give me information of where Pharye had been, making me hunt her for decades. After a while, I… I couldn't do it anymore. I had lost five specialists and one Specter trying to kill her, and the Goddess knows how many people she's killed in the meantime. When I told you about our decisions when there seems to be no right one on that rooftop when you let that human man go?" The Marine indicated that she remembered, letting Carter Burke go because it had been them that had taken him. "This is why I told you. I won't apologize for it, but I do regret it. I think you understand that."

"I do." Jane Catherine Shepard replied with a sigh, feeling bone-tired, the stress of Tela's emotions and her own wearing her out. "I am sorry that happened to Soyen, and that you had to watch that. I… I know what that is like, to watch the ones you love taken before you before your very eyes, powerless to do anything about it. I had to watch my mother die suitless in space, along with so many others on the Iwo Jima. Had I been older, I don't think I would have been any different, doing anything in my power to hunt the Batarian pirate ship that murdered so many Sailors and Marines in Alliance Space. While I would love to go after that ship, realistically, how many of the pirates serving on it would be the same ones from back in '61? It's been fifteen years. They're probably all dead anyhow, and I doubt I would ever find out their identities."

"I guess at least I had a monster whose face I knew, someone I could chase." Tela admitted, taking Shepard into her arms and holding her close. "I… won't lie, I feared doing this. The Broker, he is… ruthless. If he finds out that I've told you, he will kill us both. Slowly." That had the Human Specter snort.

"Tell the asshole to get in line. Better yet, invite him. Perhaps we could make use of the Xenomorphs and…" Shepard's words stopped in their tracks as it dawned on her what they could do.

"Tela? You said you knew where this Network Server was, right?" The smile that grew on Shepard's face made Tela begin to look quite worried.

* * *

For a Hub of the Network of the Shadow Broker, the terminal wasn't very impressive.

1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard sat at the desk of the hidden room that was located in the Flight Deck, by where she had found the Audio Recording Device made by Benson, right by the bathrooms that Tela Vasir had cleared herself. She went into the ladies' room, and looked for the corner that the Asari Specter had told her to look at; the last stall on the right, upper right hand corner. Humanity's First Specter looked at the HUD of her Kuwashii Visor, seeing the readout of her radar as it pulsed out, bringing back any telemetry of movement or shapes, and continuously came back in the clear. Shepard pulled out her Specter Gear HMWP Mark X Pistol, switching it to armor-piercing, explosive effect, pointing it at the back wall of the stall in question when she reached it, giving a quick breath to relax herself. She was alone in the room, having traveled back to the Flight Deck via the Tram by herself while Tela minded those remaining in the Helm. If she was going to do what she had in mind, then Shepard had to do it before communications and any other devices meant to capture video and motion were running, otherwise someone else among the Specters or Marines might start asking the right questions. Tela of course didn't want Shepard going off on her own, but the only way that would have worked was to bring all ten of Team Valkyrie to this certain spot of the ship without telling anyone why. It would be easier for Shepard to go discretely for a few minutes, enact her plan, and come back. That didn't make the Asari Specter happy, but it was her plan; the Thessian wouldn't be able to pull it off. Shepard found the spot to press thanks to the two interesting scratch marks that indicated where to press, and pushed at a discolored spot on the steel wall in just the right way, just like her _dhan'rana_ showed her.

The wall behind the toilet slid open, revealing a simple chair, desk, and terminal.

"_The Broker's Network works off of Quantum physics, linked by Quantum computers over a Quantum Network." Tela had told her quickly as she led Lieutenant Shepard towards the Tram Station, no one realizing that they had walked off yet. "I don't rightfully understand how it works, save that it is impossible to intercept, and it doesn't follow the rules that our Light Networks use. It is very possible that you can communicate with someone instantaneously at another point of the galaxy with no interference. I've certainly never had any issues at my terminal." That had the Thessian lock up in silence, admitting her role in things._

"_How do I get in?" Shepard asked simply, leaving any other discussion for a later date. She hadn't asked how involved Tela was. She was afraid to find out._

"_Simple; put your hand on the reader, as it isn't biometrically locked for a particular user." The Specter replied quietly, her blue-violet eyes searching for any listeners. "It is meant to go in only one direction; out. You will be answered, but you won't be able to receive anything other than audio from the terminal. It is, essentially, just a highly advanced communication device."_

"_That's all I need in order to get into contact with the Broker? It seems… simple." Shepard admitted as they approached the Tram. "I guess having to find it and the technology is really the wonder behind it. Smoke and mirrors." Tela shook her head at the euphemism; obviously, she had no idea about the Wizard of Oz. "I'll go, head there as quick as I can, and come back. For right now, my grandmother and the rest think we're cuddling or something, and they won't disturb us. I have to do this now. Lives depend on me doing this."_

"_I understand, Jane, just…" Fear and worry pulsed through the bond, and Shepard knew that the Asari feared for her, being by herself. "Do not go and get yourself killed, Maiden. There is… there is much I need to tell you. Some good, some bad, but you deserve to know. But, most importantly… I love you, Jane Catherine Shepard. I don't want to lose you." That had the Specter rock back on her heels for a moment. Tela had never said the _'l'_ word before. She hadn't, either._

"_We'll get through this, my dear." Shepard promised, not specifying between Tela's admissions or the _Ishimura_ itself; both were the same in her mind, and she sent it through her bond so that Tela would understand. "I knew this wouldn't be easy for us, but I'm still willing to give us a shot if you are."_

"_I am." The Matriarch replied, the relief in her voice matching the relief that passed through their bond. The Asari pulled Shepard in for a quick, passionate kiss, tinged with passion and desperation, the _je'dai_ straining between them as Shepard reluctantly pulled away, Tela's emotions echoing through her. "Come back to me, Maiden. I don't want to lose you, too."_

"_I'll come back with my shield, not on it." Shepard replied softly as she stepped onto the Tram, turning to face her lover as the doors slowly closed between them. "_Je t'adore, ma cheri._" Shepard whispered in French as she placed her hand on the ceramic glass of the Tram's window, seeing Tela placing her hand on the same spot before the Tram began to move, taking Shepard away from the woman she loved, alone, towards the Flight Deck._

"Okay, Tela. Here's to hoping that someone answers the phone." Shepard muttered to herself as she found the biometric scanner in question, removing the glove off her right hand and placing her palm print upon it. The device was meant for hands with three fingers or five, a small globe that seemed to be made of glass, yet electricity sparked inside the globe. The electrical energy touched her hand, not shocking her thankfully as Shepard watch the terminal come to life.

"_This is the Broker. You have a report to make?_" A synthesized voice came for the terminal, dark and menacing, impossible to tell the gender or species of the owner.

"You can say that, fuckface." Shepard replied, her voice grim and filled with steely determination. "My name is 1st Lieutenant Jane Catherine Shepard of the System Alliance Marine Corps, and an Agent of the Office of Special Tactics. I found your little Network, Smegal, and I'm going to hunt your ass down. I really hope that you aren't some slimy-ass Salarian frog who cries in the fucking corner like a little Hanar at the thought of getting his hands dirty, because I'm going to personally kick in your fucking door and make you my bitch."

Shepard had to wait a good ten seconds for a response on an instantaneous communications device.

"_You… dare?_" The voice came back, ugly and mean, the synth disguise unable to hide the malice behind those two words. She couldn't help but think that she just talked shit to one of the most feared creatures in the galaxy, and royally pissed him or her off. Good.

"Please, you fucking coward. Don't act like a Krogan, because you're not." Shepard goaded, her hand still on the globe. "I know your kind; some wanna-be tough sleezeball hiding behind safe walls. Do yourself a favor, Broker; reach down in your pants, and try to feel for whatever your species considers testicles. When you realize you can't find them, it's because you don't possess any, so don't act like you do. Hide behind your goon army on whatever little dark planet you've set up to avoid detection, because you are a cowardly little bitch that talks a mean game, but has no fucking bite what-so-ever. You are pathetic, and I can't wait to crush you under my boot so I can scrape you off and move on to bigger, juicier, braver targets that like getting down and nasty in a fight."

The silence, as they said, was deafening. It also lasted quite an unusual length of time.

"_I will personally see you dead, Agent Shepard._" The voice spoke, the malice increasing. "_What I will do to you…_"

"Fuck off." Shepard let go of the globe, the communication ceased. The Human Specter leaned back in the chair and let off a sigh, hoping that neither Uncle Royce or Auntie Val will have heard of her latest plan; they would flip their shit, and she wouldn't blame them. She had tossed the dice, and it seemed that the Shadow Broker himself had taken the bait. He would be coming personally to see her dead.

"Looks like we got ourselves a ride." Shepard replied to no one in particular as she pulled out her Mark X Pistol and proceeded to put a dozen rounds into the terminal.

_A/N_: In System Shock, SHODAN is actually an acronym for 'Sentient Hyper-Optimized Data Access Network', but since this sounded too close to 'Artificial Intelligence', I changed it to 'System'. Yes, SHODAN is a Rogue VI-cum-AI posing as a wrecked VIOS system. What? Computers can lie. Just look up Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Starshield Sentinel.

Minesweeper… did anyone ever figure out how to actually beat that game consistently beside flagrant random pressing of buttons?

I still like Tela's explanation as to why she worked with/for/alongside the Broker. There will be more to this. Again, this isn't exactly the Mass Effect you know and love. In the game, I have to admit that Tela did have a point; sometimes bad/evil men have their purposes and uses, especially if you use them to stop others like them. Tela wasn't so much a villainess as she was someone who just so happened to be on the other side of things at that moment. Had she not been hunting Dr. Liara T'soni, who is to say what differences would have been made?

Smegal - You know, Gollum?

Je t'adore, ma cheri - French for 'I adore you, my dear', or 'I love you, my dear'. See? That French class in High School had more uses than just impressing teenaged girls. And it did, BTW.

And that's how I'm going to handle the LOTSB revelation. It's conclusion, on the other hand? Not here yet :)

Shepard: 1. Broker: 0


	9. 9: A Game Of Drones

_Disclaimer: BioWare owns Mass Effect. 20th Century Fox owns the Alien franchise. EA owns Dark Space._

**Hades Nexus Cluster, February 23, 2177**

A/N: Yes, that is a play on George R.R. Martin's 'Game of Thrones'. I first read the book in 1998. Never watched the show.

1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard returned to the Helm with no one the wiser of her absence as Asari Specter Tela Vasir waited for her at the Tram Station, the relief that flooded through their bond almost staggering as the Thessian saw Shepard in the Tram as it approached the Bridge Deck, the conveyance slowing down as the doors opened slowly. The Asari practically tacked Shepard as soon as possible, blue arms holding her tight as Shepard returned the gesture.

"Now I see what you mean about separating those in the early stages of _je'dai_." Shepard whispered to her lover, the flood of emotions almost overwhelming her, Tela's emotional state almost on overdrive. "I… didn't feel as panicky. Nothing like Bastila was like on Feros. Is something wrong with me?"

"No, my love." Tela replied instantly, holding the Human Specter in a way so she could looked at Shepard with her blue-violet eyes. "For some, it is easier than others, or it takes a longer period of time. Obviously, you can be without me for a short period of time, or perhaps you believed me to be away from danger, thus you weren't fearing for my safety as I was yours." That made sense, she hadn't thought the Asari in any particular danger on the Bridge Deck, unlike herself, who had traveled alone an a derelict ship with Xenomorphs aboard. "It is something you wouldn't want tested out. Everyone reacts differently; some become emotional wrecks, others into maniacs. Given your tendencies towards violence for solutions…"

"Did you just call me a thug?" Shepard teased, giving her lover as smile as she brought Tela closer, giving her a light kiss on the Thessian's forehead. "Besides, you should give me some credit; I'm damn hard to kill."

"Ah, the invincible Maiden who thinks she can conquer the galaxy as soon as she graduates Commando school." The Asari Specter smiled, shaking her head. "Come, Jane. We should return to the Helm so that no one thinks of our absence in any ill-light. We shall merely tell them we were scanning for movement on this Deck. No one shall think twice of it. Later… we will talk. I… want to tell you of things about me." The Thessian's face clouded darkly as Shepard felt the bond harden once more, the Asari blocking her thoughts from her human girlfriend. "Things you may not appreciate or understand, but you deserve to know. We are bonded, it is what you deserve."

"I understand." Shepard replied softly, letting her hand slip into Tela's and giving it a comforting squeeze. "I'll do the same, though I'll admit there aren't too many skeletons in my closet. Just a few things I've done as a reckless teenager that I'm not to proud to admit to. Considering what you species does as teenagers, though, you probably wouldn't think it that bad at all."

Tela was about to answer, her mouth opening to do so when, Shepard saw on her Kuwashii Visor a single point of contact appear on its radar, out at a distance of forty-seven meters. The Asari must have seen something on Shepard's face or felt something through their bond that paused her words as Shepard glared at the lone dot on the radar's field as it moved to forty-six meters… and had a friend accompany it, two contacts instead of one. Shepard's eyes were widened as she looked in the direction of the contact; up towards the bridge itself, a couple of levels higher than the Helm. Then there were three contacts. Four. Five. Forty-five meters… forty-three.

"Tela… we need to evacuate the Helm. _Now_."

"Godsdamn this infernal communications situation!" 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard growled as she tried to raise anyone on-board the _Ishimura_; her Uncle Royce Mason, her Aunt Stacy Valentino, her Instructor Cavius Reminion, and even the CDF _Spirit of Vengence_ just for prosperity's sake. All the Human Marine got was static over her Omnitool's communicator, unable to reach anyone else in the vicinity. "C'mon, people! Time to shake a leg and get the fuck outta dodge!"

* * *

Ten armed beings tactically ran for their lives.

Shepard could barely recount the moments before, when she had first seen the moving contacts on her Kuwashii's HUD, the radar slowly populating with moving contacts, growing in numbers as the distance shrank. She didn't need to be reminded of what the Xenomorphs were capable of; her nightly nightmares did that for her well enough. Unfortunately, the _Ishimura_ was a practical death-trap that went in the bugs' favor; dark, cramped, with many turns and recesses for a drone to hide and ambush from. Shepard knew her radar wouldn't pick one up if it stayed still, and the drones could and would lie in wait like a patient predator. She hated the fact that while she was probably the foremost expert on Xenomorphs working for the Counsel, she was sadly unknowledgeable on their full capabilities. Sadly, the true experts were working for Weyland-Yutani, and she doubted the conglomerated Corporation would help her fill in the blanks.

Shepard would do in this situation as all Humans did in such situations; she was just going to wing it.

The Lieutenant led her team through the dark corridors of the _Ishimura_, having bypassed the Tram Station for the Bridge Deck and opting to go lower, heading towards a maintenance shaft that would lead them to the Administration Section of the Bridge, where Shepard hoped their escape route would be available. No one was looking forward to her plan of escape, herself most of all, but as far as she was aware, Shepard had an escape plan that only they could enact.

They were going to take a walk outside.

"Vrataski? How are those contacts looking?" Shepard asked through her communicator, the Marine having put the N3 at the rear of the column that she led, Full Metal Bitch having activated her tracking program on her Omnitool. For some reason, none of the others seemed to possess the program, and it was to late to do a program download when they were being hunted, so Shepard had to resign herself into putting the expectant mother of her group on rear-guard. It didn't please her any, but what else could she do? Sergeant Rita Vrataski, at the very least, was a graduate of the Villa; she wasn't going to stupidly try to take on what appeared to be three dozen bugs by herself.

"_Getting closer, Janey. Thirty-seven meters… about five turns back_." The half-Japanese N3 replied, holding her N7 Saber Assault rifle in her right hand, her left arm out as she used the tracker program on her Omnitool to continuously detect just how close they were being followed. At least the Full Metal Bitch was leaving her signature sword strapped on her back. "_Forty plus, easily._"

"Hunting party. Got any presents we can give?" Shepard asked over her radio, thinking of the half-dozen grenades that she brought. Four were modded with high-explosives, and the others were thermal. She didn't doubt that Vrataski had her own supply of grenades, possibly more.

"_I've got several prox grenades with hi-ex mods, and two boomers."_ That had the Lieutenant smile; a boomer grenade was military slang for a breaching shaped charge that would blast through even an iridium-reinforced steel door. If one wanted to go through an airlock or a hull, a boomer would do the trick. It was a nasty piece of equipment that wasn't very effective in the open, but when one put it against something, either a door or for the purpose of turning into an improvised claymore, it would do the trick.

"Get a hi-ex ready, Bitch. We're planting that son of a bitch right at the door." Shepard told the N3, leading the group of ten towards the air lock, finding the end of the maintenance shaft, where they would gain access to the Administration Section. She raised her Specter Gear Mark VII assault rifle as she punched the opening mechanism with her left elbow, prepared to fire upon anything that happened to be on the other side. Thankfully, she cleared the fatal funnel of the door as she bolted through the first three steps, turning left and right to make sure that the corners were cleared as well. Rahe'Tarram nar Sofis was next through the door, her Quarian Carbine Shotgun right next to Shepard's rifle as the Quarian Pilgrim scanned the room they had found themselves in, clearing the immediate vicinity. Her plated face looked over to the Human Specter, her silvery eyes giving her a short nod; everything seemed clear as the both of them walked forward, entering into an office-like environment dominated by desks, Haptic display computers, and servers. The room, while lit, was defunct of power going to the workstations, though the path towards the other end of the Section was clear of debris, even if there was evidence of a struggle in the Administration Section itself. Shepard looked at one bloody streak that seemed to lead towards a vent in the wall, and she hoped that whoever it was was dead before they reached the nest they were inevitably dragged to.

"Keep moving." Shepard ordered, moving forward, Rahe'Tarram right by her side as they tactically moved towards the next door, human and Quarian in tandem as their weapons continuously swept the room, checking each vent as they strode forward, the others behind them keeping the pace, even the short Volus Specter Recruit, Cur Dileed.

"We could make a stand here." The Turian Pilot Tibevius Victonius suggested, looking at the room with apprasing eyes. "Only one way in and out."

"See the broken vents? Xenos broke through them to get to the people here." Shepard told the Turian, both Ellen Ripley and Sergeant Vrataski voicing their agreement. "We stop them at the door, more will come out of the walls and swarm us. We need high ground, and this isn't it. We go outside where the environment is in our favor." Dr. Liara T'soni didn't look too pleased with the plan, gulping at the thought, but to her credit the Asari Protheanologist didn't say a word. "Airlock should be down this corridor. We helmet up and we step out. Then we leave the bugs a surprise." She mashed the next opening mechanism, the door opening to another hallway. Shepard waved the others through after she cleared the immediate vicinity, having Rahe'Tarram and Tela Vasir lead the way as she had the others pass her; Dr. Liara T'soni and Bastila Shan were first, followed by her grandmother Ellen Ripley and Tibevius Victonius, and then the Specter Recruits Porol Lamal and Cur Dileed. When Sergeant Rita Vrataski started to move forward, the N3 looked over to her, her dark eyes looking intensely into Shepard's face, obviously knowing what the Specter had in mind. Sighing, she simply handed the hi-ex grenade into Shepard's extended hand, shaking her head.

"Don't make Royce and Stacy rip my head off for this, Janey." The elite soldier told her in steely tones, moving past the Marine.

"_Domo origato_, _samurai_." Shepard replied in Japanese, thanking her with a nod of her head, finally figuring out why the N3 carried a sword. "Get them outside, Rita. And make sure Tela doesn't do something stupid, too."

"Because babysitting one stupid Specter is enough." Vrataski flipped her left hand at Shepard dismissively. "May your enemy die loud and in great numbers."

"That's the intent." The Specter smiled as the N3 moved down the corridor as Shepard went to the mechanism that would close the door behind them, pulling off the panel and ripping out a handful of wires, preventing the door from closing automatically. She looked back to see her team moving toward, Tela Vasir looking back at her with trepidation, obviously knowing that the Human Specter was up to something. The feelings of trepidation and despair echoed though their bond, and Shepard did her best to reassure Tela about her course of action. _Do not worry, Tela. I am merely making sure that they take the bait. _

_By making _yourself_ the bait._ The Thessian replied bitterly, worry growing with their bond. _Do not be so eager to make a widow of me so soon, Jane!_ The words had Shepard's heart twist as she watched the Asari Specter opening the inner airlock door, the team filing in as Ripper looked back as well, her face filled with anguish as well as her last remaining family remained behind.

And the airlock door closed behind them, leaving Lieutenant Jane Shepard behind with the growing tide of drones.

* * *

They numbered fifty-four.

"C'mon, you ugly motherfuckers, come get you some." 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard whispered as she stood by the airlock door, the corridor long and narrow, without a vent or an access for an ambush to take place. It was the perfect defensive position; she had left the Administration Section door open, only one way towards her. She had left two proximity grenades by the door to buy her time to escape through the airlock, the hi-ex that Sergeant Rita Vrataski had given her planted by the Administrative Section door. Shepard took a knee at the airlock door, her Specter Gear HMWAR Mark VII Assault Rifle fully extended in her hands, ready for combat as she placed the put of the rifle into the hollow of her right shoulder, prepared to fire as she looked at the HUD of her Kuwashii Visor, seeing the contacts growing ever closer.

Sixty-three contacts. Thirty meters and closing.

"Visor? Two-shot burst, armor-piercing round, incendiary effect." Shepard called out, the Kuwashii Visor ringing in acceptance of her order as it sent it to first her Serrice Counsel armor that she dubbed _Brynhildr_, then to the weapon that was linked to both armor and visor. "Activate VISR, low-light conditions with high-luminosity filter gain, detail enemy outline in red." Again, the Visor beeped as her vision was half filled with the Virtual Intelligence System, Reconnaissance sight, highlighting movement, friendlies, and enemy, as well as a filter that wouldn't have her gunfire's flash destroying her natural night sight with the filter gain. There was no better position for her to be in, and she would make sure the bugs would pay for every step they took.

Seventy contacts. Fifteen meters and closing.

Lieutenant Shepard saw the first of the Xenomorphs entering into the Administration Section, crossing horizontally into the main room, obviously from one of the vents; a scout on reconnaissance. She remembered the siege of Hadley's Hope, how they would send one forward to search for prey, to keep the main body from being attacked by a hostile; an effective strategy for one who hadn't studied them through an attempted assault. The sights of her Mark VII were zeroed in on the Xenomorph, the reticle's Aiming Assistance Software tracking the movement of the bug, linked to her Visor upon the identified foe through the IFF Program loaded in her Specter-issued Savant VII Omnitool. She held her finger ready on the trigger of her Mark VII, yet held off firing until there were more to fire upon; for now, she held the element of surprise.

The drone lifted its body and head, and let off a screech.

Shepard waited as she stayed in the crouched position, her weapon at the ready as several more bugs entered into the Administrative Section of the _Ishimura_, her Visor tracking seven in the middle of the room, with almost a hundred waiting. Another scouting effort? Perhaps a RAT attack? The Reconnaissance Assault Team was a tactic used by the Alliance to send a few members in to soften an enemy while having a majority held in reserve to hammer a foe when their disposition was truly discovered. The seven alien drones stood there, moving slowly, seemingly in search mode, and it was then that Shepard understood what they were and what they were doing; bloodhounds on the hunt. They couldn't see, so they were sniffing out their quarry, like coursing. Those seven drones were the hounds to flush out a rabbit, the rest to flank and attack.

Unfortunately for them, the rabbit that was Lieutenant Jane Shepard wasn't easy prey.

Shepard's finger squeezed the trigger of her HMWAR, putting a two round burst into one of the center Xenos, blasting it in its chest off as she tracked for center shots, the alien's cranium narrow enough not to ensure a successful shot, as oppose to the more likely guarantee of a chest shot. The double-tap of armor-piercing shot with incendiary effect did its job well, both rounds punching through the chest of the creature, knocking it to the floor to its untimely demise, the burning properties of the rounds searing the wound shut to limit the amount of its deadly molecular acidic blood from splattering. The creature died a quick death, exterminated before hit the floor of the Administrative Section of the _Ishimura_, not even given a chance for a death cry. The drones next to its dead brother froze in surprise, obviously unsure what had just happened, but probably unable to sense its now-dead companion. Shepard's finger squeezed the trigger again and again, her sight aligning with each shot, quick and lethal, bringing down a bug with each successive trigger squeeze. All seven were dead in a matter of seconds as the Xenos tried to figure out where the attack was coming from, most of them dying before they realized they were being shot from. The last two had finally turned to the direction in which Shepard was in, moving a few steps before she shot them dead.

The rest of the ninety-two contacts registered upon her Visor's HUD began moving forward at once.

"Visor? Full auto." Shepard called out, hearing the answering chime as the first bug began to appear in her sights, a mass of black, teeth, and claws clambering to get to her, vicious and lethal. Humanity's First Specter simply squeezed the trigger of her Specter Assault Rifle, controlling the weapon as she sprayed death upon the rapidly encroaching Xenomorphs, whittling down their numbers as they attempted to make their way towards the narrow door to get to the woman that was killing them. The Visor's contact readout was dropping as Shepard killed several more, pulsing her HMWAR to keep that heat build-up from getting too high, the fluted barrel releasing some of the trapped heat in the weapons' high-grade frictionless heat sink, the high-caliber barrel feeding excess heat through the flutes to bleed the build-up of heat that would render the weapon useless until she rocked back the weapon's bolt and directly dispensed the heat outward. This highly engineered weapon with its high-end mods and premium materials gave it around seventy constant shots before reaching its maximum capacity of heat, more if the user could keep firing efficiently by either pulsing their fire, or keeping their shots into bursts. In Lieutenant Shepard's case, she was engaging an enemy that possessed no barriers, shields, or armor, meaning that every shot was effective. It also mean that she didn't have to concentrate on a singular opponent, able to sweep her rifle back and forth, giving her the ability to volumize her effectiveness.

The bugs were going down fast and hard.

Shepard let out a warcry as she continued to fire, the recoil of the Specter Gear Rifle continuously rocking her shoulder, trying to push her back as she kept firing into the depths of the Xenomorphs. What had been ninety-two was now down to fifty-five as Shepard saw on her Visor that her weapon's heat capacity was at 95%, almost at overheat. She slapped the weapon on her chest as she pulled out her Specter Gear HMWP Mark X Pistol and began firing fast and loose, going for totality instead of effectiveness as the first surviving Xenomorph walked over one of the Specters' proximity grenades, ending its life with a catastrophic blast, bring down three more of its brethren as Humanity's First Specter continued to fire her pistol, twenty shots in all before her Mark X rang with its heat sink filled to capacity. Shepard slapped the pistol onto her left thigh and pulled out her Mark VII Assault Rifle, seeing that she had about 50% remaining shots left. She expended them quickly, firing upon the bugs with extreme prejudice as she brought down another twenty-two bugs, leaving only eighteen left. The second prox grenade went off, and Shepard rose to her feet as she walked backwards towards the outer airlock door, ready to enact the final act of her plan. Eighteen contacts left… eight meters away.

Lieutenant Shepard mashed the emergency override switch for the airlock door after slapping her helmet on.

The door opened quickly, and the Human Specter felt herself being blown out the airlock as the ship's atmosphere rushed out into the stark void of space, blasting her out with its force. Panic seized her heart as she tumbled end over end, her motions uncontrollable as the lack of friction and gravity had her floating away from the opened portal with speed. A blast of blue light struck her as she felt herself being pulled towards the ship's hull, her stomach doing lazy flip-flops as she felt a pair of arms wrap around her, connecting her to a surface. The mag-boots on her Serrice Counsel armor activated, holding her to the iridium-reinforced steel plating of the _Ishimura's_ hull. Shepard looked to see a helmet looking at her, the visor showing blue-violet eyes looking into her own.

"_I got you, Maiden._" The voice of Tela Vasir came through her communicator, the relief in her voice evident as it trickled through her bond. "_Are Humans always so insane?_"

"I'm a special case." Shepard replied ruefully, feeling Tela's admonishment ringing through their bond. "They would keep hunting us wherever we'd go. I had to stop them, find a way to keep them from getting to us."

"_Well, you got most of them."_ Ellen Ripley's voice came over as Shepard saw that every team member had pulled out a weapon and was aiming at the airlock she had just violently left. She looked to see that while most of the remaining Xenomorphs were now floating away in space, several had clung on.

Much to her surprise, they were advancing on her team of ten. In space.

"Fuck." Shepard breathed out, shocked by what she was seeing. "They can survive in _space?_" The thought boggled her mind; zero pressure, zero gravity, zero heat, and yet the Xenomorphs were clamoring towards them, though she noted how slow they were. They could survive space, but it wasn't an environment they were effective in. "Team Valkyrie, execute them."

The remaining seven drones fell to a blistering tirade of mass accelerated metal, shots being fired from no less than eleven guns; Specter Recruit Cur Dileed had both of his M-4 Shruiken sub-machine guns in both hands, firing two three-shot bursts at the bugs to make up for his lack of proficiency with weapons in general. The Xenos didn't even last seconds as their bodies were withered by the onslaught of gunfire, acidic blood spraying from their wounds as the floated from the hull, dead. Shepard watched for a moment, looking at the airlock that stood open and silent. Bugs could still come out.

"Priority message, tag Royce, Stacy, and Cavius. Encountered ninety-nine bugs, evacuated Helm. Currently outside. Bugs can survive space but at limited effectiveness. Blood is instantly crystalized. Unknown length of time. Moving out to another section of ship." Shepard told her red Omnitool, sending a burst text to the team leaders of Team Dingo, Cowboy, and Ghost. She switched her Omnitool off as she looked to the helmeted group of Team Valkyrie, standing in space. "Alright, let's find ourselves an access point to get back inside before we run out of air. SHODAN? What's the nearest access airlock?"

"_The-the-the nearest AIRLOCK to your (your) location issssszzzzz…. Is six-hundred forty me-me-meters away, towards enginEERING."_

"Guess we're walking."

A/N: I don't remember if any of the _Alien_ books mentioned that the Xenomorph was actually space-survivable, but a few failed _Aliens 3_ screenplays did have this fact as a part of the plot. Making them mostly ineffective just makes sense, but I wanted them to be dangerous in other ways.

Domo origato - So my Japanese spelling may suck, but this translates to 'thank you very much'.

Samurai - While we know this today as the sword-wielding warriors of Japan, it actually means 'servant of nobility', in which they did just that with the Shogun and the Emperor. Usually with swords.


	10. 10: Every Breath You Take

Disclaimer: BioWare owns Mass Effect. 20th Century Fox owns the _Alien_ franchise. EA owns _Dark Space_.

**Hades Nexus Cluster, February 23, 2177**

"_You just had to get us stuck out in space, didn't you?_"

1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard sighed as Rah'Tarram nar Sofis nagged her once more over the communicator as the Human Specter tried to open the airlock access on the outside of the ship, the control panel seemingly damaged by space debris. The ten members of Team Valkyrie had walked from the Administrative Section of the Bridge to the Engineering Section, but had ran into a snag; the bigs knew they were outside. A few of the Xenomorphs could be seen scuttling on the surface of the hull of the _Ishimura_, though none had made an attempt to attack them. Their numbers were few, and they were in no great numbers, usually in packs of three or so. Still, the knowledge that the bugs could survive the extreme rigors of space had left an icy chill in Shepard's heart. Had she truly killed the bugs on LV 426, or could they survive that as well? At the very least, she made it impossible for anyone else to land upon the moon of Acheron to attempt to gain the alien for nefarious purposes. There was that, at least.

"If you've got any bright ideas, Rahe, I'm all ears." Shepard replied, trying to fight against her shortening temper. The whole time they walked on the _Ishimura_ she had done her best to look at the hull and her feet, trying to think of herself on a planet, doing her best not to look up into the stars. Aegis VII was somewhat in view, but perhaps 70% of the view was still space, sending tremors in her heart whenever she looked about for signs of Xenomorphs… and found herself looking out into the void. The terror that gripped her whenever she did so was threatening to overwhelm her constantly, though with Tela Vasir's help, she was able to at least be functional. She couldn't afford to flip her shit right now. "Cur? Tibevius? Porol? Anything that you can think of that could help us?" The Volus Specter Recruit, Salarian Specter Recruit, and Turian Pilot were by her, each looking at the mechanism in question, which had suffered what looked to be a micro-meteor strike at some point in time. The mechanism itself was damaged, and none of them were able to access the small VI to activate its software to gain access inside. The physical mechanism itself was damaged as well.

Shepard looked at the read-out on the HUD of her Kuwashii Visor to see how much air she had remaining and pursed her lips.

"_Unless we blast the door open, we're not going in._" Tibevius Victonius finally replied, the Turian pilot crouched by the mechanism like Shepard was, studying it with his eyes and testing it with his hands. Tibevius, thank the Gods, had evidently been something of a Turian version of a shadetree mechanic, good with his talons when it came to physical manipulation of mechanical things. Rahe had given it her best as well, but neither the Turian nor the Quarian were able to provide a fix to counteract the damage to the mechanism. The pilot had a point; they were either going to have to blow the airlock, or move to another one.

Blasting it open might not solve their problems, and an explosion might just bring the bugs to them in swarms.

"_There's another airlock on this Section, according to the schematics."_ Dr. Liara T'soni spoke up, having accessed her Omnitool and began looking at the physical layout of the ship, making herself useful in other ways while they stared at the denied entrance. _"It is not far, approximately a kilometer, but we do not know what we might find if we go there."_ Shepard understood what the Protheanologist was getting at; it was a gamble. The next airlock might not give them issues at all. It might be damaged. It could be swarming with drones. Shepard didn't ask how much air was remaining for the others; she was pretty sure that the Human suits held less than the others, she remembered hearing about that at one point of time. "_Specter Shepard… Bastila is worried about her air supply. She's got forty-two minutes. Will that be enough?"_

"_She's doing better than me. I've got thirty-nine."_ Sergeant Rita Vrataski snorted, the N3 non-plussed. _"It'll be tight, but she'll have minutes to spare."_

"_How many minutes? I'm down to thirty-seven."_ Ellen Ripley asked, holding her A-33 Ardat Submachine Gun in both hands competently, her tone even. Despite not being a soldier, Ripper had been in space and hairy situations longer than anyone save Tela Vasir, and her composure showed it. Full Metal Bitch was obviously doing some calculations in her head, the trained Special Forces soldier having done something like this in the Villa. Shepard knew the courses, and what one had to do to earn each separate one. For the N1 Course, it was to conquer doubt by pushing an N Candidate through a brutal obstacle course that would fatigue and drain a Candidate beyond the breaking point, to push a Marine or a Sailor further then they had ever gone… and then make them go that much further. The N1 course had the highest failure rate at 80%, so many simply giving up from sheer exhaustion and the weight of their own doubts of their limitations, which was the point of the Course. Five weeks were spent building a Candidate's confidence level so that when they tackled the obstacle course, they were at least in physical shape to do it, as well as possessing the willpower to drive their body's beyond their capabilities.

The N3 course was worse; surviving a space environment in a hard suit where one must meet an objective with _just_ enough air to reach the goal… as long as the Candidate didn't panic. To conquer fear.

"_Thirty-two minutes. We've got the time."_ Full Metal Bitch replied a second later, nodding her helmeted head, having been trained to survive and deal with such situations. That was why Humanity's N's were so celebrated, elevated above all others in the military; they had literally been through the worst that the Alliance Military could throw at them, and came out still standing. They had conquered what crippled others; doubt, selfishness, fear, emotion, pride, indecisiveness, and finally ego. The Courses were designed to forge a warrior into the perfect weapon of lethality and leadership, to turn a man or woman into something that others could look up to, to inspire confidence and success in the worst of situations. While there were N Teams, like Team Dingo and her Pop's own team, Team Dauntless, N's were sprinkled through the Alliance Military so that regular Sailors and Marines could see what one could achieve. Shepard, of course, grew up with the N's, and fully knew what they were capable of. In many ways, she was capable of many of the same things, having known them and heard of them, as well as begging various members of her Pop's team to do some of the crazier things they were involved in.

Shepard looked at her remaining air supply read-out on her HUD and did her best not to make a sound at the disheartening number.

"We not getting any pretty standing here talking about it. Let's move out." Humanity's First Specter ordered, never having voiced her own precious reserve of breathable air. Shepard knew that it was possible to survive another few minutes after the gauge rang out as long as one didn't mind breathing a quickly growing amount of carbon dioxide, poisoning themselves with the odorless, colorless, lethal combination that would have a human feel sick and go unconscious in a matter of two minutes inside a suit. Shepard began to walk towards the objective, the marker put up on her HUD for her to follow, deeming it necessary to keep silent to conserve her oxygen. They were already in space, where traveling on foot would be slower and more exhausting. Gods help her if they actually ran into an obstacle of some sort. The others followed her studiously as she began to lead when she felt a trickle come through the bond that she and Tela Vasir shared. Damn, she should have known the Thessian would have figure it out.

_Dhan'rana, you did not say how much air you had left_. Tela pointed out through their bond, the Asari Specter a testament to her species' wisdom and her own powers of observation gleaned from decades and centuries of investigations and crime-busting. _Is… is it bad?_

_Twenty-nine minutes._ Shepard finally replied, walking along the hull of the _Ishimura_ on her mag-lock boots, traveling half as fast as she would be if she were in a normal environment. _Don't say a word, Tela. They will panic and waste time… time I don't have. I know what a human body can take, how long I truly have. You might have to drag me in, but I'll survive it if everyone is keeping their head in the game._

_JANE!_ Tela's thoughts were loud, reverberating in her head as loud as a bell, a flash of fear and worry shooting through the bond. _Jane! We can blast the airlock! We can go through where we just were!_

_And empty the atmosphere out of the Engineering Section for how deep inside? Alerting the bugs? It could be a death trap for all we know._ Shepard reasoned, still walking towards the next airlock. _That might get us all killed, Tela. This… only I am in real danger. I will not get others killed due to my own reckless selfishness._ The bond went silent between them as Shepard continued to walk towards the next waypoint, seeing the meters slowly eaten away as the timer on her HUD continued to count down, reaching twenty-four minutes and fifteen seconds. She was disturbed by the lack of emotions feeding through the bond between her and the Thessian, and it hurt her though she knew she had no one to blame but herself. _Tela? Tela? I… I am sorry. But I am responsible for all of you. I could not make the decision that could endanger us all just because I was the one in danger. Remember what you told me of Aleea D'hana? How she sacrificed herself to save you and your Commando Sisters? She did it out of love, she did it out of selflessness. She didn't want the thought of being responsible for any more deaths other than her own. I understand why she did it. _

_If the time comes, I will carry you._ The Asari Specter promised, her tone muted through the bond, yet the power behind it… it wasn't words. It was a promise.

_Thank you, Tela. I… I love you._ Admitting it should have been easier, as they were bonded and were lovers, yet Shepard couldn't help feeling that hitch, that obstacle in her heart. She had never said the words to anyone before save to her own mother and Captain Anderson, her Pop. To her, love meant unequivocal trust, someone she knew that could absolutely be counted upon. Did she love the Thessian, the blue alien woman that had unexpectedly come into her life some three months prior? How many assassination attempts did they survive together? How many obstacles did they conquer? Her own humanity seemed to fight against the thought of giving herself to a being of a completely different species, born on a different planet, whose blood was a different color and skin wasn't even of the same flesh as her own. Yet Tela Vasir had always stood steadfast by her side, patient and kind, every step of the way. The Asari Specter had even admitted some of her darkest secrets and fears to Shepard, something she had never done with anyone else. Tela truly did love her… and Shepard was determined to fight her own biology, to earn it. _I am sorry for the grief I cause you, the worry that I instill. _

_It is who you are, Jane Shepard; a leader of your kind, selfless and brave._ The Thessian replied a few moments later, her tone still muted, yet thoughtful. _To love you, I must accept that this is who you are, what you are. You are the daughter of warriors, raised by warriors, and that was what you wished to be as a child. That is one of the reasons why I am so intrigued by you, endeared by you; you are a paragon of your own kind. To take that away from you would be to take what is good in you. If I am to be yours as you are mine, I must accept that you will be the foolhardy Maiden that takes unacceptable risks and dangerous actions to prove herself to others. I guess we know who holds the wisdom in this relationship._

_Yeah, okay, I earned that one._ Shepard chuckled to herself as they continued walking along the hull, and she looked towards Aegis VII, seeing where a small portion of the planet had been carved by the planet-fracker, the ring of debris encircling the planet thick. _I was thinking… we should take a trip somewhere. You and me. Somewhere nice. Gods know I've never been much of a planeteer. Any recommendations? Earth is a little discouraged at the time; filled with bigots, civil war, the usual._

_There is a place…_ the Asari Specter began but went silent, her thoughts a little jumbled, _there is a place that I visited once, and would wish to see again before I pass on. It is on a mountain, and the way the sun sets upon this mesa, the way it changes the colors of the sky at twilight… but it is impossible, I'm afraid. I'll never be able to see it again._

_Where is it at? _Shepard asked, curious.

_The Kel'she Ma'yah Mountain Ranges on Rannoch, the Quarian Homeworld._ The Thessian admitted sheepishly, seemingly a little embarrassed. _My mother took me there once, and we shared a sunset there, my last good memory of her. I had always intended to go after she passed on, but always had an excuse not to. When the Morning War occurred, I knew the place was lost to me forever, and I regretted the excuses I made not to go and visit, to honor my mother. Still, I have it in my memories, and if there was a place I could visit again above all others, it would be the Kel'she Ma'yah Mountain Ranges, a place my mother loved, as do I._

_That's… romantic, actually._ The Human Specter replied through the bond. _You'll have to show me that memory, if that is okay with you. I… don't have anything that great about the few years that I was on Earth, since I was mostly in school and training in Annapolis, but the one thing I do like to remember is the Statue of Liberty. It may not seem impressive to you, a three hundred year old copper statue standing on an island in a bay, but what it represented for years was a promise and an idea. I got to look at her before they tore it down; some asshole went and stole her head. Fuckers._ She looked at her HUD, the Visor giving off the distance remaining to the waypoint… and her remaining oxygen levels. Some five hundred meters to go… and twelve minutes left.

She wasn't going to make it.

* * *

One hundred meters. One minute.

1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard did her best to fight the growing panic that was building in her heart, the terror that wished to seize her, as the minute counter on the HUD of her Kuwashii Visor reached zero, and all that remained were the seconds. An alarm was ringing in her head as her HUD began to flash red, alerting her of the danger she was in, not helping matters. She knew that everything she was feeling now was being shot through her bond with Specter Tela Vasir, the Asari undoubtedly feeling the panic the Human Specter felt growing inside of her as the countdown spiraled downward to its inevitable conclusion. Perhaps Tela was right; perhaps she was nothing more but a foolhardy Maiden who thought herself invincible. It was a strength, to be sure, but it was also a character flaw. She could only flaunt fate so many times before she gambled and lost.

50 seconds.

_Tela? Tela? I'm almost out of time…_ Shepard did her best not to panic, to fight the storming emotions that were beginning to seethe within her as the alarm continue to ring and her HUD continued to flash red with each passing second. _I'm… I'm scared, Tela._

_We're close, Jane._ The Asari Specter reasoned, her calming influence a poor barrier against the panicking terror that grew within her, Shepard doing her best to keep her breathing even, from wasting more oxygen than was necessary. She knew the math behind it; it had been taught in Annapolis. She could hold her breath for two minutes. Every breath past 0% would increase the carbon dioxide content by .4%. She wouldn't be sucking in the much-needed oxygen to fuel her body, but she would be expelling the very lethal carbon dioxide that would poison her. The human body could only withstand 1.6% concentration.

Four breaths with no oxygen. She had perhaps three minutes until she went unconscious and her own unconscious mind would poison itself by trying to breath in a lethal environment. Three minutes past 0% to make 84 meters.

_Slow breaths, Jane. Slow, deep breaths._ The Thessian advised her calmly as Shepard willed herself not to try to run on the hull, her mag-lock boot preventing the action, but also to keep her heart rate and breathing rate down. She had to be as calm as possible with her last remaining oxygen supply. Shepard briefly wondered if this was how Death Row Inmates felt on their long walk to the firing squad, their final moments a stroll to a concrete room with five men armed with assault rifles to end their life.

30 seconds.

_Nononono…_ panic was like a beast lunging at her, her brain unable to ignore the red alarm or beeping warning as Shepard's air supply dropped even further, sweat beading her forehead as she tried not to take short, shallow, panicky breaths; a surefire way to burn through her breathable air. Slow, deep, steady breaths. It was harder to do than it was to think about it. _Tela! I'm… oh Gods I can't do it I can't I can't I'm trying…_

_Slow. Deep. Steady. Breaths. _The Asari's voice rang through the bond, fighting the terror that Shepard felt as she felt an arm loop through hers. She looked over to see Tela walking beside her, her Specter-armored arm holding her own, keeping her promise; to carry her through. _Tell me of your sire, John Shepard. Tell me how he died._

_He… he… he flew into a Turian Dreadnaught, right into their engines._ Jane answered, fear still gripping her as she tried to focus on the thought of a man she had only met in pics and stories from her mother and Pop. _The Turians were lining a kinetic strike package against New London, to glass the defenders and refugees, our last strongpoint on the colony._ 20 seconds. _My father… he was one of the last remaining Viper pilots still in the sky, his fighter damaged, his weapons not strong enough to make a difference. _15 seconds. _He flew into the _Wrath of Apien's_ engines, destroying two and severely damaging the ship, setting it off course and making it go into emergency maneuvers to prevent it from burning into Shanxi. He saved the colony and wreck the Turian's last dreadnaught. Because of him, we fought them to a bloody standstill… and ended the First Contact War._ 10 seconds. _To this day, Shanxi and the Battlestar _Oregon_ still honor my father's memory… and I've heard told that on Palaven, there is a list of honored enemies whose name is memorialized for their bravery and courage, that the name 'Widowmaker' can be found there._ 5 seconds. _Thank you, Tela. I love you._

0%

Lieutenant Jane Shepard took her last breath of oxygen as the tank in her Serrice Counsel armor shut off, no more breathable air to give as the HUD on her Visor remained stark red, reading 0.00.00 time remaining, the ringing alarm now just a single continuous tone, like the flatline of a heart monitor. She held her breath, gulping as much useable oxygen as she could into her lungs, to prolong her fragile chances. The first fifteen seconds were nothing as she kept walking, keeping pace with the Asari Specter that walked by her side in space, the Thessian's arm holding her tight. Thirty seconds, and her lungs began to burn, her body crying out for another fresh breath, yet Shepard willed herself to hold on, knowing that her time was running out. She squeezed her eyes shut as she concentrated on the impossible; for willpower to defeat biology. Every second she held her breath would be another second her brain wouldn't be damaged from apoxia; lack of oxygen, brain death. Thirty-five seconds, and the burning sensation was spreading throughout her body, much like the panic was. Still she put one foot in front of the other as her hands trembled, squeezing shut to fight off the desperate need for air. Forty seconds, and her vision swarmed as colors began to explode from behind her eyelids, almost florescent in color as her brain panicked and screamed for air. Forty-one seconds. Forty-two seconds. Burning. Throbbing. Needing. Forty-four seconds. Screaming. Agony. Forty-five. Forty-six.

At fifty-one seconds, Lieutenant Jane Shepard gulped for a breath that wouldn't come, and choked.

Unbridled terror permeated her thoughts as Shepard gasped and choked, her body spasming as she tried to draw another breath, expelling carbon dioxide into her suit and drawing in the poisonous gas that the human body could only deal with in extremely small portions. Her hands went to her armored gorget, for her protected throat as her body seized and her heart rate rocketed towards tachycardia, thrumming at a hundred and eighty beats per minute almost instantly. Panic and terror washed over her as she plunged into the void of fear, immersed in a deathly environment, her mind knowing that it was over as she drew another oxygenless breath, breathing in almost a full percent of carbon dioxide… making her gag as her lungs tried to force the lethal gas from itself, entering asphyxiation. Her body no longer moved on its own accord as she began to spasm and flail, the panic had taken over her completely. She cried out, her communicator still on as she screamed in fear and terror, begging for help as she exhaled more carbon dioxide, three times more than with any normal yell due to the higher concentration and limited volume inside her suit. Her next gulp was short and painful; it burned her lungs as no oxygen was taken in, nothing to breath in as she ingested 2.1% of carbon dioxide… .5% more than the human body could take and survive. The combination of apoxia, asphyxiation, and tachycardia had Shepard's mind in a blind panicking terror as she let out her final words, a gulping scream that came out both as a cough and regurgitation as her stomach expelled its contents in the body's final blind fight against death itself. Yet it was also its deathstroke; there was nothing else. Nothing at all. Shepard's heart seized in her chest as her brain desperately, in its last and final moment, shut itself down into a low-powered state, cutting off the body to protect itself, to give itself its precious eight minutes of survival in the hopes it could be revived before cerebellum cells began to breakdown, the brain frying itself in order to survive. Her entire body locked up into a floating fetal position as every muscle contracted violently, folding upon itself in a final fetal position for protection as the body withered inward, the heart giving its last voice, a final heart beat that had no brother.

1st Lieutenant Jane Catherine Shepard had died.

A/N: So the title, based on The Police song, was not quite what you were expecting, was it?

In this chapter, I go a little into the N Courses, or my version of them. I haven't read anything that really describes them, either in Mass Effect or in FanFiction, though there are hints and ideas. I went for the idea where each course is really a trial; to defeat failure in each aspect. Doubt, selfishness, fear, emotion, pride, indecisiveness, and ego are each of the Courses, and each one has a trial specifically geared to defeat what makes us fail for normal reasons. If you don't think these are true, then I suggest you take boxing as a hobby, and you'll learn very quickly. I had a football coach in high school who use to express that the '100% commit' in a tackle was one of the hardest things to do because your body and mind doesn't want to fail nor injure itself. To fully launch yourself at a running target isn't an aspect of physicality, but mentality, and takes not only training, but you basically conquering yourself and your own limitations. The Bastard (my nickname for him) is absolutely correct, and I use to teach his very techniques in the Army for other purposes, to help my soldiers push themselves past their own mental blocks and doubts.

In the Mass Effect series, someone indeed steals Lady Liberty's head, as seen in _Kasumi's Stolen Memories_ DLC, owned by Donovon Hock. I don't remember the year it happened, but I have to where Shepard sees the Lady in her full glory before the head is stolen and the statue taken down and sold for scrap, which is in canon.

If you've never almost died, died but came back, or having almost drowned (and I mean like gulping water for oxygen drown) the absolute terror that comes is beyond measure. It is violent, a living thing that defeats all. The written word will never capture that final moment that grips everything and pulls you under. If you've never experienced it, be fortunate.

And if this chapter didn't pull at your heartstrings… I know I was floored the first time I played Mass Effect 2.


	11. 11: Einherjar

Disclaimer: BioWare owns Mass Effect. 20th Century Fox owns the _Alien_ franchise. EA owns _Dark Space_.

**Hades Nexus Cluster, February 23, 2177**

_Dhan'rana! Dhan'rana! Wake up! Please!_

Pain. It was what she first knew. In her limbs, in her body, in her mind. It was an ocean of pain and darkness, confusing and directionless as words came to her, how, she didn't know. She couldn't remember anything; where she was, why she was there… her name. All she could remember was the pitiless void that surrounded her, that she breathed and drank.

_Dhan'rana! You must wake up!_

The voice came again… a woman's voice. She couldn't place it, but it felt… familiar. She looked about in the inky blackness of the void, a cold blanket that offered neither hope nor salvation, one direction as good as another. Whatever it was, she didn't like it. It seemed to suck everything away at her. Though she couldn't remember anything but the pain and darkness, something glimmered with in her… small, but bright. A hope. A beacon.

_Dhan'rana!_

A pain hit her chest, like a punch, and she didn't like the pain. It was different than the pain of the void that suffused her; this was singular, penetrating, right into her breast. It hit her again and again, like a rhythm, pumping into her. She wanted it to stop, to let her heavy limbs to sink into the ocean, to let herself drift away. She was so very tired.

_WAKE UP!_

The voice… it was calling to her. Was it the Gods? Was it something else? She tried to open her eyes, her lids so heavy, as she felt something pushed into her, something harsh and searing, her chest aflame as she felt it expand not once but twice. The burning sensation subsided as the pushing, pressing pain came again, pumping her chest once more. She wanted it to stop, begged and pleaded as the void around her shimmered and wobbled, threatened by the new pain thrusting into her chest. The ocean was so comforting, the pain numbing her, but the pressing sensation brought a new pain to her, a burning sensation that trickled into her body and limbs, carrying the oppressive weight away. She tried to fight against the new pain, the comfort of the void slipping away, stirring her from the deep sleep that had comforted her so. What was doing this to her? Why?

_PLEASE!_

Her eyes opened.

1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard found herself looking upon nine eager, worried faces as the intense need to vomit came to her and she turned her head to expel the contents of her empty stomach, heaving as she got up on her hands and knees, trying to vomit on a metal floor as her body heaved several times. She gagged a few times as her ribs and stomach hurt from the action, coming up only with bile that she spat out onto the floor, its sore taste reminding her…

She had died. She had been brought back.

"Oof." Shepard slumped back onto the floor, her body so heavy as she looked at the faces of her team mates, that of her grandmother, Ellen Ripley, the closest. Her mind was now awake and alert, making connection of what had happened. She had died gasping for breath. They were inside a metal hallway… they must have made it. The fact that her helmet and chest piece of her armor were removed, Ripper had performed CPR on her, bringing her back. She tried remembering what had happened in between her last breath and her next one… and couldn't remember anything in between. She found herself looking from Ripper's concerned face to that of Tela Vasir's anguished one. "Not Valhalla?" Shepard asked, her voice weak and horse from bile and gasping for life. Gods, but her chest hurt. Felt like she broke a rib.

"Not close, kiddo." Ripley replied, tears shimmering down her cheeks as she wiped them away, and gave the Human Specter a fierce hug. "Scared the shit outta me, Janey. Don't ever do that again."

"We were desperate, Ripper." Shepard replied in her grandmother's ear, knowing that however bad she felt, Ellen Ripley was undoubtedly feeling worse, the woman whom believer her daughter Amanda died hating her for abandoning for space. "I… I can't make the promise, grandma. If anyone of you were in danger, I will face it with everything I have. I know you understand why."

"Yeah, I do." Ripley pulled away, the pilot wiping away her eyes. "Doesn't make it easier, Janey, but I _do_ understand." Ripper gave her a wane smiled as she helped Shepard to her feet, making the Marine groan in pain, her body crying in protest as she stood on wobbly legs, feeling as if everything were disjointed and not fitting properly. She looked over to see Tela's face looking at her own, a mask of grief and desperation on the Asari's face. Shepard tried to reach the Thessian through their bond… and found it empty. The realization was like an emergency break to her; it stopped her very thoughts in their tracks as she tried grasping for that point in her that represented the Asari's gift of memories to her and couldn't find it. It finally occurred to her why; she had died.

Their bond was gone. She was alone.

"Tela? I… I can't feel you." Shepard whispered, looking to the Asari Specter, whose face fell with the words. "No… I'm so _sorry_, I didn't mean…"

"It is damaged, not broken." Tela finally replied, and everyone else wisely moved away, Dr. Liara T'soni giving one look of sympathy to Shepard before turning away, to give them the allusion of privacy. "I held on, no matter how it strained and frayed. I didn't let go."

"Thank you, my love." Shepard took the smaller Asari into her arms, holding her tight as she kissed her forehead, just below her crest. The movement of her sore limbs made her body protest, but she ignored them; this was more important. "You carried me, you saved me. I didn't want to hurt you, but I couldn't stand the thought of others suffering the same fate."

"I know. Just like Aleea." Tela closed her eyes and pressed her head against Shepards', touching foreheads. "You are a stubborn, foolish Maiden that risks much. I was like that, once." She watched as the Thessian concentrated hard, and Shepard felt a small pinprick of hope in her heart, a small glimmer of love that wasn't her own, the faintest of touches that was once ironclad. It was their bond, weak yet there, and despite the diminished feel of it, Shepard couldn't have felt happier; she wasn't alone.

"I… I felt you." She sobbed, holding the Asari even tighter, her arms screaming in agony. "I don't know how to make it up to you, putting you through that, but I'll find a way, _dhan'rana_."

"You'd had better." Tela replied, only half-amused as a smile smile appeared on her blue lips. "I am just glad that we were able to bring you back, Jane."

"Me, too. Now, where are we and where are we going?"

* * *

The Engineering Section was the largest section of the _Ishimura_. It was also the most complicated.

1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard sat on a convenient table, checking everything on her armor after connecting the chest piece back onto her, reengaging the connections to her Byrnhildr armor, running a full systems diagnostic to make sure everything was in place and in working order. Team Valkyrie was currently cooling their heels in a utility room of some sort, where work tables and tool chests filled with and assorted allotment of work equipment was stored in several supply rooms, the room possessing a cargo freight elevator that could take them to the several levels of the Engineering Section. The diagnostic program booted up, checking through the connections and relays of the Serrice Counsel armor, confirming each and every point until it came back on the Kuwashii Visor that all systems were nominal. Shepard pursed her lips, looking to the others of Team Valkyrie, and saw that everyone had given her her space. Good; she didn't want anyone to see what she was about to do next.

"Byrnhildr, run user medical diagnostic."

The program beeped as the same sensors that had ran internally on the armor now turned and ran over her, scanning over her body for any injuries. Shepard could still feel the pain that suffused in her joints, the ache in her muscles, and how sore her chest was. She was pretty sure Ellen Ripley cracked a rib giving her chest compressions, which she didn't blame her grandmother at all. But the other pains she felt… those were due to her temporary demise. Was there something wrong with her? Was it permanent? The scanners took a moment to go over her body before it gave her a read-out over her Visor. Shepard read it silently.

A few pulled ligaments. Two strained muscles. One micro-fracture in her third left rib that sat over her heart. An unusual build-up of lactic acid in several joints, but nothing alarming. The read-out had the Human Specter give off a silent sigh of relief; nothing a few days of rest wouldn't cure. Hell, a small dose of the shitty Medigel they had brought would clear most of it up in just a few minutes. She had been worried; she had died, after all, from asphyxiation, at that. She could still remember the fragments of memory from when her counter had hit zero, the panic and terror that had gripped her. It shamed her somewhat, but Shepard was realistic about it; she had died a horrible death, and yet had come back from it thanks to Tela Vasir and Ellen Ripley.

"Jane, is everything okay?"

Shepard looked up to see Rahe'Tarram nar Sofis standing in front of her, so lost in her own thoughts that she hadn't notice the Quarian Pilgrim approaching her. Her Quarian friend was standing in a posture that indicated that she was worried; her three-fingered hands were clasped together in front of her, held at the level of her breastbone. She was standing closer that was usually considered comfortable among humans; something that Shepard had noticed Quarians did. Perhaps because their Fleet was so overpopulated that territorial boundaries were lesser than others. The Human Specter gave the Quarian Specter Recruit a reassuring smile, letting her friend know that she was indeed fine.

"Just performing a basic medical diagnostic. Nothing a few anti-inflammatories and some bed rest wouldn't cure." Shepard replied, seeing Rahe relax slightly. "I… I haven't thank you all yet for what you did. I didn't want to tell you because I didn't want to spend time I didn't have arguing. I made my decision for the best of the team. I apologize for what you had to see and feel out there."

"To that, you have no need to apologize." The Quarian's accented voice was quiet, almost subservient as she folded her arms over her torso, holding herself; a Quarian sign of unease. "That is… that is something a Quarian would do for his or her shipmates, Jane; sacrifice for the good of all. If it had been me, I would have done the same thing. But I came here to tell you something else, something you should know. It is not easy to admit, but you will hear it." Shepard nodded as one of Rahe's hands went to tug on her lime-green _sha'hana_, obviously embarrassed about something. "You remember how I became a Specter Recruit?"

"You went and saved your kidnapped Pilgrims by letting yourself get captured so the slavers could take you right to them." Shepard replied immediately, remembering almost every detail. The Human Marine had been very impressed with Rahe'Tarram's actions to rescue her own people, showing a bravery that Shepard admired and respected. It was one reason why they became such fast friends. "You also killed slavers. That's always a good day. Badass Quarian warrior."

"My… my twin sister was one of those captured." The Quarian spoke softly, her vocalizer barely able to pick up her words as Shepard felt her heart drop; that portion had never been mentioned before. "I wanted to save my people, but I went to rescue Jora. We had gone our separate ways for our Pilgrimage because we wanted to compete with one another, friendly competition, but we've shared everything before. We… we wanted to prove ourselves as individuals. I… I heard from another Pilgrim how Batarians were kidnapping Quarians outside the Fleet, and all I could think of was Jora in their clutches. I tried messaging her, to get into contact with her, as we talked every week despite the cost, but… but…

"She was taken." The Quarian fell silent as she held her own arms, rubbing them as if she were cold.

"So you went in the only way you knew how; you let yourself get captured, too." Shepard nodded her head, thinking of how brilliant that was; who would suspect anyone would _purposefully_ get captured by slavers? "I know you said you rescued most of the Pilgrims. Jora wasn't one of them, was she?"

"N-n-n-no." The normally fearless Rahe stuttered the word, grief evident even through her vocalizer. "She fought back, and earned their ire. The bastards _unmasked_ her."

"Oh… oh no." The Human Marine couldn't relate, of course, but she knew of the Quarians' almost nonexistent immune system. The common cold was as lethal to a Quarian as the Ebola virus was to a human being. Probably just as bad.

"She was so sick, delirious, the fever burning her up…" Rahe'Tarram shivered with the thought, obviously reliving the memory. "But she saw me one last time, Jane. I got to look upon her true face as she laid dying, and she spoke her last words to me with a smile. I… I watched my twin take her last breath, holding her hand as she died in front of me. I never wanted to see that again.

"But I did. I saw it with you."

Shepard felt speechless as she looked at the Quarian's silvery eyes through her orange-tinted visor, barely able to make out some of the features that made the Quarian's face. She remembered how Tela had told her how similar in appearance Humans and Quarians were.

"When you started choking and gasping, I remembered Jora as she gasped her last breaths, could hear it rattling in her lungs." Rahe continued, almost sobbing. "I thought it the most painful moment in my life, watching my sister die. Yet her words stayed with me, and I'll never forget them. My baby sister, I did all I could to save her, but I was too late. Yet I wasn't too late to have her see me one last time, to be there for her last moments. For that, I am forever grateful. I had a sister whom I was proud of, and who was proud of me. One day, when I join our Ancestors, I'll tell her all about being a Specter, traveling the stars with a crazy Human Marine that throws herself out of airlocks and tries killing bugs with her fists. She'll get a kick out of that." The suited Specter Recruit went silent for a moment, and Shepard knew that her friend wasn't finished. "What she told me, lying on that table as I held her hand, was that family wasn't limited by blood or species, that one day, I would find my own. I… I didn't understand her at the time, Jane. Our parents had died years before, and my last remaining family member was dying before me, and yet she was telling me to go find another? I… I hated hearing that, but I didn't say anything at the time. Now, now I understand what she was trying to tell me. She wanted me to go out and find those who understood me for who I am, not what I am. Do you remember the first time we met?"

"I do." Shepard whispered, thinking of her first class in Specter School…

"_Class," Instructor Cavius Reminion stood in the front of the classroom, with a Human by his side. "This is Lieutenant Jane Shepard of the System Alliance Marine Corps. She is a Specter Recruit like yourselves." Rahe'Tarram nar Sofis found herself looking at what appeared to be a human female dressed in something like a blue military uniform, complete with a blue hat of some sort on her head, round and flopping over to one side on her red hair. She was a little taller than the Asari and herself, though not quite as tall as Kya Drang, the female Drell Recruit. They had been told the day before that the Office of Special Tactics had accepted a Human Specter, the first of her kind, and the barbs and jibs had been lively in the classroom. Both Turian Recruits had wondered if she would flee at the sight of so many aliens, running right out the door. The former Detective Ulla D'evora wondered out loud if she had evolved enough to count past her fingers and toes, while the Volus Recruit, Cur of Clan Dileed, was making wagers with Naor the Bull and Daeporm Norban on which person she would insult first… and who would be the first to send her to the hospital. Through all this, Cavius said nothing to stop them, and Rahe did nothing to join in. She wondered to herself… was that how they were like when they heard there would be a Quarian Specter Recruit coming in the next day? The other Recruits were polite to her in a distant fashion, but neither did they talk to her, either. Despite the population of the Citadel, Rahe'Tarram was a woman alone amongst a crowd. So when the human female plucked the blue thing from off her head, something she called a 'beret', and scanned the room, Rahe was surprised when she became the target of green eyes and a smile as the class's newest Recruit came right towards her with an extended hand._

"_Hi, I'm Jane." The human said, her tone… friendly? It took a moment for Rahe to realize that the hand was meant to be taken, and she slowly slipped her three-fingered hand into the human's five-fingered one, and was surprised when she jerked it up and down. It was a weird salutation… but it was the first one anyone had ever tried giving to her._

"_Rahe'Tarram nar Sofis." The Quarian replied, at a loss of what else to do. She knew nothing of Human customs. As she understood it, not many did._

"'Nar' _means 'born of', right? Your birthship?" The Human asked, still smiling, friendly and polite. Was it an act? It was all Rahe could do just to nod her helmeted head, struck speechless. "I was born on a ship, too. The Battlestar _Oregon_." Much to her surprise, Jane Shepard sat in the chair right next to her and winced. "Oof! I think this one's a Turian chair."_

"_It is." Jordam Bau, the nearest Salarian Recruit, replied, his tone even._

"_Well, I doubt you have any chairs built for a human ass, so I guess I'll just have to get use to it." Rahe boggled at that; just who was this creature? Weren't humans suppose to be snobby and controlling? This Jane Shepard knew what 'nar' meant! She doubted anyone else in the class had thought to ask or to look it up! And she said that she was born on a ship, a military one by the sound of it. She was a part of her races' Marines._

"_The _Oregon_ was your birthship?"_ _One of the Turians asked, Elias Korvan, the loud-mouth soldier who, like many Turians, was selected due to his performance in the Hierarchy Military. He was the bragging, boastful kind, though this time, his voice was a bit more subdued. "And your name is '_Shepard_'? Do you know John and Amanda Shepard? Are you related?"_

"_I'm the daughter of the Widowmaker and the Ripper." The human female replied, and all three Turians looked at one another in abject silence. Something profound had just happened between them, Rahe was sure, but what, she couldn't say. "No worries; I don't fly a Viper." _

"_Spirits. It would be their hatchling to make it." Garrus Vakarian muttered, shaking his fringed head, his flanged voice somewhere between wonder and worry. Rahe had no idea what they were talking about, but she guessed it had something to do with the 314 Relay incident that happened almost two decades before, when Humanity and the Turians were fighting one another._

"_Were your parents warriors?" The Quarian asked, curious, when they took a break later on during the day, the human female standing by one of the classroom windows, looking out into the Citadel, probably to enjoy the scenery._

"_Highly decorated Viper pilots." The human replied with a smile, and Rahe didn't miss the wistfulness in the new Specters' eyes. "Dad died ramming a Turian Dreadnaut, saving the colony of Shanxi. Mom was killed by Batarian pirates. Raised on military ships my whole life. Now I'm… here." For a moment, Shepard looked uncomfortable, looking at the various species behind them in the room. "I really don't know much about… well… the others." Rahe could tell that she was trying to be polite. "I'm nervous as hell."_

"_You don't seem nervous with me." The Quarian pointed out, curious. Why had the human approached her in the first place? Most avoided Quarians. Rhae decided to ask._

"_Honestly… we're both pariahs. I figured it's a start." The female with the red hair answered, and it boggled her mind. Shepard approached her simply because their species were looked down upon? Well, it made a queer sort of sense. "And we're both born on and lived on ships almost all our lives, so we've got a few things in common."_

"_My parents were Migrant Fleet Marines." Rahe admitted, shrugging her shoulders. "My father died defending the _Sofis_ from a Geth excursion patrol, and my mother died giving birth to me." She wasn't ready to talk about Jora yet. "I had hoped to be a Marine like them when I finished my Pilgrimage. Even have my father's Carbine Shotgun. Now I'm… here." The Quarian finished by gesturing towards the window, to the Citadel itself. "First Quarian Specter in three hundred years. I'm frightened beyond measure."_

"_Well, Humanity's First Specter thinks you could use a friend. Care to try?" Again, the human female extended her hand once more, but this time, the Quarian knew what to do, and she took it._

"I… I don't know what to say, Rahe." Shepard looked away for a moment, chewing on her bottom lip and thinking all that the Quarian had told her. "When I showed up to that class, my heart was going at a hundred miles an hour, I had no idea what to expect. When I saw you sitting there, all I could think was… there was someone who could relate and understand what I was going through. Quarians are ostracized and ridiculed, even worse than humanity. Yet you had made your way into the Office of Special Tactics, and all I could think of was… kindred spirit. And you ended up being tough and funny, brave and kind, thoughtful and decisive. I guess what I would like to say… Rahe'Tarram, can we be sisters?"

"I would like that." The Quarian replied softly, her vocalizer almost not picking up her words. "Maybe you'll get to see my birthship, meet my Captain."

"Well, the way things are going with Earth, you'll probably be seeing that pretty soon." Shepard stood up from her temporary seat, stretching out her limbs to fight back the soreness in her limbs. "Ugh. Still got to find a way off this infernal machine. Hasn't anyone invented teleportation yet? We've got Salarians, by the Gods! You'd think one of them have figure this out by now!"

"What? You're not asking the _Quarian_ to fix the mechanical issues?" Rahe folded her arms and stood in a cocked position, one hip cocked out as she leveled a glare at Shepard.

"Would it make you feel better if I did?" The Human Specter smiled, eliciting a chuckle from her new sisters' vocalizer. "C'mon. Let's find a way of this shithole of a ship so we can scrap it and sell it for profit."

The elevator ride up toward the first level of the Engineering Section was both slow and somber. 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard stood near the front, where the door was, impatient with the elevator. The grinding of metal-on-metal was slight yet annoying, and she couldn't help but tap her foot on the metal planking of the elevator floor. She started tapping her foot some more, pretending to ignore the annoyed look that Bastila Shan was giving her.

"Gods, are we back on the Citadel? Can this thing go any slower?" Shepard muttered as she looked at the HUD readout of her Kuwashii Visor, seeing no contacts coming up. Sergeant Rita Vrataski snorted while Tela Vasir merely shook her head, standing beside Humanity's First Specter, the Asari standing even closer to her than she usually did. Her foot continued to tap out a rhythm, and for some reason she felt impatient, like she wanted to go out and run a marathon or climb a mountain. It wasn't that she somehow had the energy to do so, but the urge and willingness were there. Maybe it was with her brush with death; correction, it wasn't a brush with death but a head-on collision that she had walked away from. There had been a few times she had cheated death, but never so flagrantly, so audaciously. She had truly been dead; no pulse, no breath, _nothing_. Worst of all, she couldn't remember a thing in between that final breath and that first breath, where she had been dead for five and a half minutes. No light, no Valhalla, no great understanding. Perhaps she hadn't been dead long enough. Shepard wasn't willing to try that out twice. Still, the impatience was still there, still making her wish she could be doing something _right now!_ She was so caught up in it that she hadn't realized that she was bouncing on her toes, humming a song, and garnering the attention of everyone in the elevator. "What?"

"Um, are you alright, kiddo? I swear you're humming a _Faunts_ song." Ellen Ripley asked, her grandmother looking at her with some worry. "You're practically dancing to the tune of your own soundtrack."

"I dunno. Brynhildr says nothings' wrong but… I just feel pent up!" Shepard replied, frowning, stopping her bouncing and humming, but the feeling inside was still there.

"Perhaps it is a human thing." Tela Vasir replied, a little concerned, looking to Ripper. "Asari are generally introspective during such trials. I've heard Turians seek Clan members for reconnection."

"We Quarians get morose." Rahe'Tarram nas Sofis volunteered, looking at Shepard, her helmet cocked to one side. "I wouldn't think a near-death experience would make someone… bubbly."

"Probably just need to go out and shoot something. Battle high, probably." The Human Marine shrugged her shoulder, still feeling like she wanted to jump out of her own skin and run laps. "I wasn't even like this a few minutes ago! Maybe it's one of those '5 Steps of Acceptance' things? How'd it go again? Denial? Anger? Bargaining? Right now, I'd say I feel effervescent or indestructible."

"Goddess, all we need is a hot-headed Maiden running around, shooting everything in sight, convinced of her own immortality." Tela sighed, shaking her head. Shepard gaped at the Asari.

"Hey! I don't shoot _everything_ in sight! The rest… well, that's mostly true." That had Sergeant Rita Vrataski chucking in the back of the elevator as Cur Dileed gave off his hacking laugh through his suit's vocalizer. "A girl's gotta have dreams, right? I always thought I'd buy it and end up one of the _einherjar_."

"The… what?" Dr. Liara T'soni asked, confused. "Is that like God Father and Son Jesus Christ Holy Ghost? Human religions are… confusing." The Protheanologist looked to Bastila Shan, who stood next to her, shaking her head.

"The _Einherjar_ are warriors who died courageously in battle." Tela Vasir spoke softly, answering the question. "They are chosen by the Valkyrie, the Battle Maidens of the Gods, to pick the best and the bravest, to usher their souls to Valhalla, the Warriors' Heaven. There, they will feast and drink with the Gods, training and fighting one another as immortal warriors until the day Ragnarok comes; the Great Twilight of the Gods. It is then that the Gods, the Valkyrie, and the _Einherjar_ will fight Ragnarok, dying to save Asgard and Midgard, the home of the Gods and the plane of mortal beings."

"I'm… impressed, Tela. I didn't think I told you that." Shepard replied, her tone surprised. "I know for a fact I never told you that."

"I looked it up sometime after we first met." The Asari Specter replied a little shyly, obviously trying to hide it. "I was trying to get a sense of who you were as a Maiden. So I looked up your religion to see what you might have been taught. It is a rather intriguing, if rustic, religion. Rather morbid, though. I'm just glad that you don't hang people from a tree to give thanks to Odin. That's… barbaric."

"Not many trees in space." Shepard gave her Asari lover a joking wink. "I'm kind of surprised you looked it up. It's touching, really."

"Ugh! Stuck in an elevator with lovebirds!" Full Metal Bitch lamented. "I'm gonna get cavities!"

"Why the Norse religion?" Ripper spoke up, looking to her granddaughter. "I mean, I figured it out on LV 426 before I knew we were related, so I didn't think much of it afterwards to ask you when I learned you were my granddaughter. Was your father Scandinavian? Did… did Amanda believe in the Norse Gods?" Shepard heard the pause in her grandmother's words; it was distressing to think how little Ripley knew of her own daughter. Then again, Shepard knew so little of her as well.

"You're probably not going to believe me, but I was looking up Afterlifes on the extranet after… after the _Iwo Jima_." The Human Specter finally replied, the jubilant feeling she had before crashing down as she remembered those days. "Pop had just taken me under his wing, and… and I was a mess. I just watched my mother die, and I… I was in space, where there was no sky to think of a Heaven to be in." The elevator went quiet, despite the various species of different religions, everyone was listening. "I wanted to think that my mother was someplace good, someplace she deserved. But none of the other religions ever covered anything like that, traveling to other places, other beings… save the Vikings. They were explorers and travelers, going across the oceans in glorified canoes with sails, braving uncharted waters and unmapped lands. So far from home, yet they had a pantheon that was more than just an Earth-bound religion. Yggdrasil, the World Tree, was said to hold all of the _galaxy_ upon it, that Earth was just a small part of everything. The Gods of Asgard were to be the Guardians and Protectors not just of Midgard, but all the Realms. And that those who fought bravely, who died valiantly, were to earn a spot at the side of the Gods, eternal warriors who wait for Judgment Day to come, to fight the Final Battle. I… I wanted that to be true, because that's where I want to think my mother and father are at; together, eating and drinking, laughing and fighting, among the best that Humanity ever had to offer. And I want to earn my place there as well… so I could see them again, to fight alongside them." Shepard went silent as she felt the old knife of grief twist in her heart, thinking of her parents. She hadn't cried about their loss in a long time, but the hurt associated with it was always there, like a piece of shrapnel too close to the heart to remove. "The thought of a Warrior's Paradise was… it was romantic to me. None of the other ones had what I was looking for, didn't give me the solstice and comfort I was craving. Then I realized it was because I wasn't looking for _answers_, I was looking for a purpose, for the will to accept and move on. And I did. It helped me, helped me move on, helped me realize what I wanted to be, what I wanted to become. I guess in a strange sort of way, I am here, right now, Humanity's First Specter, because of that search."

"That's sort of sweet, really." Bastila Shan replied a moment later, her voice husky, obviously touched. "Romantic for a people famous for reaving, raping, and robbing. And I see why a spacer like yourself wouldn't find the other religions appealing. I kind of remember the hick-ups the religions had when we realized that there were others in space with no answers to be found. I guess the Norse religion has the closest thing to aliens in it that isn't considered one of those nut-job cult religions that end up doing suicide pacts."

"Thanks. I think?" Shepard replied, shaking her head. "Anyhow, that's Shepard 101; I believe in the Gods of Asgard. At least I'm not so fidgety anymore, but could we ever _get_ somewhere in this fucking elevator? Seriously, how is it slower than the ones in the Citadel?"

"Those are slow because Elcor get airsick if they move too fast… and no one wants to be stuck in an elevator with a one-ton creature that's throwing up and defecating all over the place." Tibevius Victonius offered, the Turian pilot surprising the Human Specter with his explanation. And now there was a reason _not_ to hate the Citadel elevators. "As for this one… I'm going with shoddy human engineering." That had Porol Lamal snicker as Shepard rolled her eyes.

"You won't make fun of human engineering if we ever crash into water and I _don't_ throw you a flotation device, Mr. Swims-like-a-rock." The Specter teased the pilot, going after the well known fact that Turians could barely tread water for a moment or two, having descended from birds on a planet where the largest bodies of water were barely medium-sized lakes. "I could toss you a cute, plush Hanar stuffed animal for comfort as you sink like a metal bar." Sergeant Rita Vrataski snorted at that one as Dr. Liara T'soni politely hid a smile with her hand. The Turian pilot's mandibles went wide with indignation, but at least he had the the good sense to understand that he started it, and was a good enough sport to bow out gracefully. The elevator finally dinged as they arrived at their destination. "Fucking _finally_! I've all but forgotten where we were suppose to go."

"We're linking up with Royce and Stacy so they can take turns berating your little stunt." Her grandmother reminded her, her tone disapproving.

"Oh. Yeah. That." Shepard sighed as she shouldered her Specter Gear HMWAR Mark VII Assault Rifle, her stiff joints making her wince slightly. "Let's get that one over with as soon as possible so we can get the fuck off this ship."

* * *

A/N: For those not versed in the Norse Mythos or Wodinism (as is the current name for those who practice it), the Einherjar are, in fact, mortal humans who have died in battle, picked by the Valkyrie to serve the Gods in Valhalla, to eat, drink and fight amongst one another until Ragnarok, where they will fight the Final Battle of the Twilight of the Gods, to die valiantly as they did so in life. A warriors' heaven and paradise.

'Humming a Faunts song…" - I think we all know what song I'm talking about here…

5 Steps of Acceptance - a psychological study believing that there are 5 steps in accepting death; denial, anger, depression, bargaining, and finality. There is a YouTube video involving a cartoon giraffe sinking in quicksand that gives a cute snippet of the 5 steps.

Son Jesus Christ Holy Ghost - My idea of what an alien might think of the Holy Trinity. First seen in Mass Effect: The Battle of Tuchanka, Chapter 4- For A Few Krogan More, where the Asari Huntress Asha T'vara called the Trinity 'God Father and His Son Jesus Christ Holy Ghost'. I'm still trying to think how Athame, a Prothean, somehow mutated into a blue chick.

The Gallows God - Odin, sometimes Woden (where the term 'Wednesday' comes from, btw) is the All-Father of the Asgardian Realm. What Marvel Movies _don't _tell you was that the proper way to revere Odin was with a man doing the skydance with a noose as a necktie. Odin hung himself for some reason off of Yggdrasil (the Tree of Creation) and became known as 'the Gallows God'. He gave up an eye for wisdom, and has two ravens that serve him, Hurnin and Thurnin; thought and memory. His mead is brewed from the blood of dead dwarfs, and he faces Fenrir in Ragnarok himself, where they both die; Odin is swallowed whole, and Baldir rips the snake's mouth open in two. In fact, in the Great Cycle itself, I believe almost all the Asgardian Gods die killing their opponents; Thor kills the Great Serpent Jormanger but drops dead nine steps afterwards, Tyr dies killing one of the joten giants, etc. If I remember correctly, Fenrir starts it by becoming free, from a time where there are three winters with no intervening summer. Four of the seven days of the week are named after Norse Gods; Tyr's Day, Woden's Day, Thor's Day, and Freyja's Day. Saturn's Day, Sun's Day, and Moon's Day were named by the Romans. Why is this? Go look it up… cuz' I don't know.

Nut-job cult religions that do suicide pacts - I'm referencing the _Heaven's Gate_ cult on this, from back in 2000, some 30+ people kill themselves when the Hale-Bopp comet came by, the believers thinking it a spaceship that would cart their souls… shit, why am I explaining this craziness? It's like Jonestown with fewer people.

I don't know who started the concept that Turians can't swim, or that they are descendants from birds, but I'm running with it, and why they can't swim as well.


	12. 12: A Clash Of Queens

Disclaimer: BioWare owns Mass Effect. 20th Century Fox owns the _Alien_ franchise. EA owns _Dark Space_.

**Hades Nexus Cluster, February 23, 2177**

_A/N: _Yet another name ripoff of George R.R. Martin's 'A Clash Of Kings'. Pretty sure you'll figure it out, especially if you read Mass Effect vs. Aliens: The Siege of Hadley's Hope.

"_What, in Good God's holy-fucking name, were you thinking?!"_

1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard winced as she stood there, at parade rest, a string of abuse directed right at her by Master Chief Stacy Valentino, her Aunt giving it to her as good as she could. The Human Specter had heard the phrase 'pin your ears back', and now she knew exactly what it meant; she was pretty sure that Val could be heard throughout the entirety of the ship. It was an impressive volume, ranking somewhere between a very large explosion and a spaceship taking off, and that was just the volume. The words themselves turned the air blue, somewhere in the neon range, as Shepard stood there silently, her body and eyes locked into place as the N7 dressed her down expertly. She wasn't going to say a word; it wasn't a two-way conversation.

"_I won't even ask if you were trying to get your dumb ass killed, because you fucking did!"_ Her Auntie Val screamed right at her face from less than an inch away, their noses almost touching as Shepard felt spittle hit her face, forcing herself not to blink or wipe away the spit that flew from Val's lips. _"Just how fucking Goddamn stupid can you be, walking out in space with shit for air than is needed to make your next destination? Facing bugs by yourself? Throwing yourself out of an airlock? Do you have a deathwish?"_

"No, Master Chief." Shepard replied, her eyes and body never moving as she answered simply, knowing good and well when to reply and when not to. Anyone who spent five minutes in the military learned when to answer simply, and when just to shut the fuck up.

"_You could have fucking fooled me, _Lieutenant!" Stacy screamed at the top of her lungs, somehow even louder. The Master Chief stared at her for a long moment, and to Shepard's surprise, her Auntie Val wrapped her arms around her and hugged her fiercely, and she could feel the N7 trying to stave off crying. Val… crying? Now she really felt like shit. She'd rather see her Aunt screaming at her at the top of her lungs than to see her cry. "Goddamn it, Janey… you're the closest thing I've ever had to a daughter, and you're running around, reckless and regardless, trying to be a hero. And I think I know why." The N7 pulled away enough so that she could see Stacy's brown eyes, tears still slowly sliding down her cheeks. "You spent your life around N's, and it shouldn't be any surprise that's what you wanted to be more than anything else. We raised you, and you wanted to be one of us. But you didn't realize then is that we're forged from years of military training and experience, having lived through and survived shit that people generally don't, to include friends and battle buddies we've had. You see us for all we are, but you never got to see the things we suffered, both before and after, to learn what drives each and one of us to reach this point. I can tell you know it isn't to be the best; those fuckers are the ones that fail N1 course. No, Janey, each one of us finds a reason to succeed that isn't selfish. Don't believe me? Ask Vrataski. Ask her why I call her the 'Full Metal Bitch'. She's got a story that trumps yours and would make a rock cry.

"You don't have our restraint, you don't have our experiences, and you certainly don't have the understanding we do when it comes to such things like this." Val continued, her voice soft, shaking her head sadly as she continued to hold Shepard." Your decision? Your team over yourself? Proud of that, kiddo. That was grade-A heroic bullshit. I would make the same choice for the same reasons. The difference between you and me? I'm not Humanity's First Specter." That had Shepard stop short her thoughts. "Think of it this way; if a Turian Specter gets killed doing what you did, the Counsel just shrugs its collective shoulders as the other thousand or so do what it is they do everyday. Same with the Asari, same with the Salarians. You… are our first. _Ever_. You get yourself killed with some stupid reckless stunt like that? Counsel thinks _Humanity_ as stupid and reckless, like we're a pack of retards. Next Specter might not be for a long time coming, and Humanity doesn't have the voice it needs. You're on top, Jane Catherine Shepard, and you earned your way up there. Now you need to make sure that you _stay_ up there, pave the path we need so that we can be a little less afraid, a little less angry." She frowned at that, but Gods help her if she didn't know _exactly_ what her Auntie was talking about.

"Kids and soldiers are going to look up to you, Janey; they're going to want to _be_ you. Your at the same level as Jon Grissom, David Anderson… and your Mom and Dad. Fifty years from now, people are still going to know your name, first _ever_ Human Specter, the highest office a human being could hope to achieve with the exception of… I dunno, if the Counsel ever decided to have a _fourth_ seat and have us in on it. Which I doubt." Val snorted and shook her head at the ludicrous thought, making Shepard smile at the preposterous idea as well. "Janey, I want you to succeed, I want you to do well. I don't want to see you die for _any_ reason, no matter how noble or grand. With a few exceptions of friends, no one's going to remember me. A lifetime of fighting for humanity, and I'll die on some airless rock that makes Uranus look nice, and I'll soon be forgotten. I'm okay with that; I was there when it mattered most, and made a difference. You? You are our Julius Caesar, our Napoleon, our Nelson. Your name will shine for _centuries_. You need to make sure that when people say your name? They aren't comparing it to some retard or mass murderer. I love you, kiddo, and I don't want to be the one that carries your casket and flag. That heroic bullshit? It looks all well and good on paper, but when that person is gone… they're simply gone. What would _you_ do just to see meet your father? To see your mother once more? Think they would turn in every award and accolade to see where you're at right now? In a motherfucking heartbeat." That hurt, but Shepard understood what Stacy was trying to tell her. "Be the hero we _need_, not another forgotten flag hanging on a wall with a plaque. We got plenty enough of those."

"Okay, Auntie." Shepard held Master Chief Stacy Valentino tight, embracing the woman she had known for almost a decade, the woman who had been a second mother to her. She understood what Val was trying to get at, trying to tell her. "Love you, Val."

"Love you too, kiddo." They pulled away for a moment, and Stacy held Shepard's chin, peering into her green eyes. "Leave the stupidity to me and Royce from now on, okay? That's why we're N7's; to do the dumb shit that only we can pull off and still be breathing afterwards."

"Well, dumb shit aside, we're still stuck on a ship filled with bugs, and now I know for a fact that there's a living Queen here." Shepard explained, finally looking over to Teams Dingo, Cowboy, and Ghost, everyone having finally linked up in the topmost section of the Engineering Section of the _Ishimura_. Master Chief Valentino, Captain Royce Mason, and Specter Instructor Cavius Reminion had been trying to fix the communications relays and the computer drives of the ship so that they could send a signal out, as well as look for any survivors. Why the Computer Core was located there, as oppose to the Bridge, Shepard had no idea, seeing it as a design flaw. Still, at least they weren't registering any contacts. "There was a hunting party after us, Val. One hundred bugs in the Bridge section. Any of you gotten any contacts?"

"Nope." Captain Royce Mason replied, having already admonished the Specter for her stupid space-walking stunt earlier. He hadn't been pleased, either. "You'd think they'd go after one of us, being in smaller groups. It's not like you guys were moving about. Were you?" Shepard groaned as she thought upon the possibility. She _had_ moved around by herself… right towards the Flight Deck. Hadn't they seen the most signs of Xenomorphs on the Flight Deck? Acid scorch marks? One bug by itself in the Maintenance Bay? She thought it through, thinking on how while they never saw the actual Queen on LV 426, they knew that she had to be under the reactors of the terraforming complex. So where would a Queen go for a ship? Someplace defensible, someplace she could control. "Janey? I asked you a question."

"Huh? Yeah, I found a Shadow Broker terminal." Shepard replied, her thoughts still on the Queen. She missed the look that Royce, Stacy, and Cavius exchanged with one another. "The Queen is going to want someplace she feels safe, somewhere where she could bring in all the personnel on the ship, right? What's the largest portion of the ship she could control? The Cargo Bay? Mining Deck? Hydroponics? If you were to kidnap a thousand people, and keep yourself safe, where would I go?"

"Care to explain the 'I found a Shadow Broker terminal' part you just mentioned." Cavius Reminion asked, his flanged voice a little off, one of his mandibles twitching. Shepard wasn't really paying attention. Where would she hide if she were the Queen?

"Found it during our search for Stacy's Tram doohicky thingie. It was in the ladies' room, behind a toilet." Shepard lied, still mulling over the location. "Activated it, got him to send some assassins to come and kill me. We shuffle them loose the mortal coil and steal their ship. So, ride issue is getting solved." Someplace warm, dark and steamy, that was what Private Trevor Wierzbowski had said back on Hadley's Hope. For all they knew, Ski had hit it on the head; maybe it was the ideal location for the Xenomorphs. They sure hadn't been effective in space, even if they could survive it for the Gods knew how long. Hydroponics seemed like a good choice, but that was on the other side of the ship from the Helm. Why send a hundred bugs when she only went to the Flight Deck, which was in the upper middle portion of the planet-fracker, not a the rear bottom where Hydroponics was located according to the _Ishimura_ schematics. No, not Hydroponics.

"You contacted the Shadow Broker, and asked him for a ride?" Stacy Valentino asked, her tone disbelieving.

"No, I insulted him. Called him a coward, testicleless, a weak crying Salarian bitch… I don't remember all of it." Shepard was still mulling it over. Mining Deck didn't seem likely; they hadn't been that far either. "Said he was going to personally see me dead. Told him to fuck off." Dark, probably? Warm, possible? But Mining Decks were filled with all sorts of dangers and moving machinery, probably not something a semi-primitive species would want to be at. Mining was scratched off.

Wait… what had the original distress call said?

Shepard brought up her red Omnitool, and began going through files, remembering the message that Executor Kryus Contenus had given to her back on the Citadel in the Office of Special Tactics. She remembered something that she had heard there, the first broadcast for help. There had been the man's voice that had given off the distress call, and a bunch of background noise that were the alarms… to include the ship's emergency broadcast system! That was what she was trying to remember! She queued up the file and played it again. _"Mayday, mayday, mayday!"_ The man's voice called out, the panic in his voice obvious. Shepard could hear the emergency klaxon going off in the background, along with some emergency broadcast. _"This is Engineer Temple! We're under attack by some… I don't even know what the fuck they are! But they're capturing or killing everyone! If you can hear this… send _somebody!_ The _Ishimura's_ taken a lot of damage, and most of the systems are off-line! And if you do come? Bring lots of guns, 'cuz these things love to stick the the shadows and ambush you. Temple out." _She began fiddling with the audio adjustments on her Omnitool, trying to limit Temple's voice and the klaxon that practically drowned everything. She played it again, making a few more adjustments until the klaxon was almost completely washed out, and the Engineer's voice was subdued. This time, she could hear the emergency broadcast.

"_Warning!"_ The voice of SHODAN was unmistakeable now, calling out through a ship-wide announcement._"Biological contaminate detected, Medbay! All personnel, evacuate the Medical Deck! Quarantine! Quarantine! Quar.."_ The message ended with Temple's ending the transmission, but Shepard heard all that she needed. A part of a Specter's job was to investigate, and she had done just that; she knew where the Queen was.

"Fucking bitch went and set up shop in the Clinic." Humanity's First Specter declared, looking at both N7's and her Specter Instructor, who looked at her without saying a word. "Why grab the food when it can come to you? She found some spot in Medical to start laying eggs, and all the sick and injured walked right into a trap. A few facehuggers later, and she got drones to start doing the dirty work for her. She probably got a good chunk of the personnel on the ship before anyone realized there was a problem, just like on LV 426. That's why they went after us; the Flight Deck and the Bridge are right next to the Medical Section. We've mostly stayed to those sections, so the Queen was trying to collect us. Now we know where we need to go."

"Okay." Royce grabbed at the bridge of his nose, obviously trying to quell a headache. "Aren't you the least bit concerned that the _Shadow Broker_ is sendin' people to come and kill you?"

"What? No." Shepard waved it off as she shut off her Omnitool. "We're on a broken ship in a decaying orbit over a cracked planet in the middle of dead space. Between the asteroids and the bugs, I'd say a few pieces of the scum of the galaxy trying to come and get me are rather low on my list of concerns. I'll go MiB on their ass when the time comes. Then we can steal their ship and get the fuck outta dodge so I can send this thing straight towards Ground Zero on Aegis VII. Soon as we're confident that a rescue isn't feasible or possible, I'm dumping this thing for a one-way ticket for a crash collision. CEC can fucking bill me. Besides, just how dangerous can the Shadow Broker be? I've got Specter weapons, armor, and equipment. Plus, he probably thinks that I'm either alone or have a small team, so more power to us. Even Krogan can't be that dumb."

"No. Just Human Specters." Stacy growled, shaking her head. "I guess it's too late to stop the idiocy train now. Let's hit up Medical to see if we can find ourselves the Big Bad Bug." The N7 looked at Shepard with an intense glare. "Any other moronic decisions you've made in the past ten minutes that we should know about? You didn't call up the Batarian Emperor and schedule tea time, did you?"

"Only if I get to sip tea out of his skull."

* * *

"Shit, _chica_, you look like hell."

"Thanks, Vaz." 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard replied sarcastically as she took the Gunner's hand and clasped it hard, bumping shoulders with Corporal Jeanette Vasquez, glad to see her friend. "Val give you any shit?"

"Please! That_ puta_ gives _everyone_ shit." The Marine replied with a shrug of her shoulder, her heavily-modified M56 Marshal slung in a carrying configuration. "You just had to go and wax some bugs without me, didn't you?"

"There's about a thousand more to go, Vas; plenty for everyone to share." Shepard smiled, as she looked over to Sergeant Dwayne Hicks and Corporal-Technician Bill Hudson, the four last remaining members of the 343 Mobile Infantry. It made her think of what Master Chief Stacy Valentino had told her before; what would she give to have her platoon back? Or the original members of Team Dingo? They had died heroes, but they were dead, and never coming back. She could still remember their screams as they died. "Queen's in Medbay; I'd put good credits on it. Into the Lion's Den we go so we can sink this ship and scuttle it."

"Fuckin' A, Lieutenant, what's up with you and destroying everything?" Hudson asked, shaking his head as he planted his Stryker Assault Rifle onto his hip. "I'm ready to grease some bugs so we can get the fuck outta here."

"Yeah, but first we gotta set the reactor to overload…" Sergeant Hicks began, his tone faux-suffering.

"Then we gotta go pick up the El-Tee's dirty laundry…" Corporal Vasquez jumped in, resting her arms on her Marshal, giving off a sigh of resignation as she looked towards Hick, giving him a knowing nod.

"And then we footrace a supernova or some shit…" Hudson popped in, a swanky smile on his face.

"While shooting everything in sight…"

"Fistfighting a Krogan…"

"Lighting a cigar with a flamethrower…"

"Makin' the Counsel cry…"

"Punch a reporter…"

"Stealing a Frigate…"

"You guys are fucking impossible." Shepard exclaimed, throwing up her hands in frustration, looking at her former squad, the smile creeping up on her face as she began to laugh, the mood infectious. She had missed the shit-talk, and it did wonders for her mood. "Well, don't come crying to me when all of you get transferred to some bitch unit out in the outer colonies, humping it on some Venusian hellhole, hotbunking it with some fat, sweaty guy that never showers." Hicks chuckled at that as Vasquez rolled her eyes. "If we don't do this now, we're going to get ambushed sooner or later. We take the fight to her, whittle her numbers, and leave some nasty surprises. If there are any survivors left, we won't be able to find them if the Queen thinks she can fuck with us whenever she wants. Show her we're a threat, and perhaps we can get her to leave us alone. Or, she hunts us down like no other."

"Shit, man. Bring 'em on." Vasquez smiled, pulling up her heavily-modified Marshal, slapping the receiver bolt. "This bitch is blood-thirsty, and I'm tired of playing hide-n'-seek. Let's go wax some motherfuckers." Hudson gave off a hearty _hoo-rah_ as he hoisted his Stryker Assault Rifle, the maniacal gleam in his eyes bright as the Marine bro-punched Sergeant Hicks' shoulder, making Dwayne nod with a smile. They were ready.

"Time to give someone the Big Green Pickle." Shepard smiled.

* * *

"_N-n-now arriving (ing)_; _Medical DECK."_ SHODAN spoke through the Tram's intercom system, Captain Royce Mason, Master Chief Stacy Valentino, and Specter Cavius Reminion's teams able to make some repairs to the Computer Core to where they could access some more of the ships' systems, one of them unfortunately being SHODAN's ability to garble at them.

"SHODAN? Give me a list of what's wrong with the Medbay, minus the critical faults with the ship. We already know those." 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard asked the ships' VI as the doors to the Tram opened, revealing the Tram Platform for the Medical/Science Deck. There were a few bodies on the platform that were lying there, and as Naor the Bull covered the door leading to the Medical Deck with his four auto-targeting Spitfires on his back, various members of Specters and humans went to check on the bodies. There were eleven in all on the platform, each with their chest burst open; an obvious sign as to what happened to them. Bastila Shan looked positively sick at the sight of a Xenomorph's birth, and Shepard couldn't blame here; it was gruesome to see the inside chest cavity of a man or woman. What bothered the Human Specter was that she didn't see any eggs or facehugger corpses. Perhaps they scurried off after knocking up the personnel to die somewhere else.

"_W-w-warning (ing) (ing)."_ The VI spoke, its voice modulation still damaged. "_Medical (cal) Deck under quar… quar… quarantineeeeee# &amp;$! Biocontaminates (taminates) present in Medbay. Biocontaminates presentSENT in Science Lab (Lab). Ishimura Personnel under lockdown (lockdown) con-con-conditions. Warning. Personnel are with-with-without lifesignnnnzzzzzz… Unknown personnel prezzzzent in Medbay."_

"How many 'unknown personnel' are in Medbay?" Shepard asked, curious. That didn't sound like 'biocontaminate', an obvious descriptor for the Xenomorph. Perhaps there were survivors!

"_T-t-t-ten unknown personnel, to (to) include four membersssszzz of the Ishimura_." The VI replied.

"Survivors. Fourteen survivors." Shepard breathed out, looking over to Tela Vasir and Captain Royce Mason. "SHODAN? Have the personnel been in contact with any biocontaminates?"

"_Ne-ne-negative, Lieuten(ten)ant."_

"'Bout time we got some good news." Uncle Royce breathed out, all smiles. "Probably stuffed themselves inna locker or an airlock. We get 'em out first before we go toe-to-toe with Queen Bitch. We'll split some of us up to lead 'em out of here. Perhaps they seen some thin's that might tell us what happened here, or where the Prothean doohicky is at." They hadn't even begun to look for the Prothean device that was the whole reason they were there. With the introduction of the Xenomorphs, any search would be hampered by constant attacks and ambushes. Before they could look for the device that the _Ishimura_ had picked up, they would have to play exterminators first. That suited Shepard fine; she wanted the bugs dead. Bugs… how had they gotten aboard a planet-fracker in the first place. "We'll start with the heavies first; Naor can take most anythin' on, and we'll flank him with Vasquez, that Elias bloke, Hudson with his explodin' gun, Val and myself. Janey? We secure a beachfront, and you lead a team towards the Medbay itself for the survivors. Take who you want, and we'll button up the first thin' solid. We search the place low and high, inch by inch. Gotta hand it to ya, kiddo, seems like this should be the place. Annapolis gave ya' some brains, jus' gotta remember to use 'em from time to time, sheila."

"Thanks, Uncle." Shepard replied sarcastically.

"What I'm here for." The Australian man replied with a smile. "Bull? Ready those Spitfires! We're openin' the door to the lockdown, and you're the first one in with the nasties, so go in hot 'n heavy. Vas, Korvan, Hudson, Val, get ready to get live. If one of you chaps be so lovely to get the door for us?" The six of them got ready as Shepard went to the door leading towards the Medical Deck, her Specter Gear HMWAR Mark VII ready in her right hand as she put her back to the wall, looking to the six companions as they readied themselves to assault forward. With a nod from Royce Mason, Shepard pulled the mechanism that would open the door, stepping away from the opening by a few feet as Naor the Bull lumbered forward, the Elcor Heavy Weapons Specialist clearing the hallway with his four Spitfires. Corporal-Technician Bill Hudson was alongside the Elcor, his Omnitool on and tracking program running while Corporal Vasquez stood to the other side of the Elcor, her M56 Marshal leveled for combat, the _latino_ woman poised ready for contact.

"Negative contacts. Fifteen meters to the next door." Hudson called out softly as Shepard peered inside, seeing a hallways that terminated at another door. "No readings beyond."

"Secondary team, move up." Shepard called out, motioning Captain Mason, Master Chief Valentino, and Specter Recruit Elias Korvan forward. Both N7's had their M-99 Sabers at the ready, while Elias had his T-24 Phaeston Light Automatic Support Rifle in his talons, the Turian Specter Recruit's mandibles wide in anticipation. They stood at the ready behind the Elcor and two Human Marines, ready to provide flanking support and secondary fires if necessary. They didn't know how bad things would be if they went inside the Medical Wing. With the potential of a Queen, that meant Xenomorphs, probably wall-to-wall bugs. There was also eggs and facehuggers to worry about. "Hicks? You, Vakarian, Drang, get ready to support if necessary. Biotics, you're next on the list; time to see if space magic works on bugs." Sergeant Hicks, Garrus Vakarian, and the Drell sniper Kya Drang readied themselves by the door of the Medical Bay, readying their weapons; Hicks with his Disciple Shotgun, Turian Specter Recruit Garrus Vakarian pulling out his Turian M-55 Argus Battle Rifle in lieu of his M-92 Mantis Sniper Rifle, while Kya Drang swapped out her Armax Arsenal Punisher Sniper Rifle for her modified M-9 Tempest Machine Gun. Behind them were the three Asari Specters; Tela Vasir, Asha T'vara, and Ulla D'veora. Each had smaller weapons ready; Tela had a Specter Gear HMWP Mark X Pistol in one hand, while both Asha T'vara and Ulla D'veora had A-33 Ardat sub-machine guns, giving them the ability to access their natural biotics while being able to fire at the same time. "Rahe, myself, and Jondum Bau will hold the hallway and protect our escape route if needed. Cavius? Have everyone hold a defensive position in the Tram Platform, ready to defend, move, or beat retreat as needed. We could be opening the door to a hornet's nest, so be flexible people." The Turian Specter Instructor nodded as he began moving people into position, their weapons ready to use if necessary, both Dr. Liara T'soni and Bastila Shan glowing slightly blue, readying their biotics as necessary. "Royce? Let's give the door a knock." Shepard called out through her communicator.

"_Right you are, 'gel._" The N7 replied, his tone pleased; this time, they were the hunters. "_Val? Knock, knock._"

"_Geez, Royce. That was lame._" Aunt Val replied, her tone suffering as she moved forward to the next door, just as Shepard had. "_Let's see who's there_."

The door opened to the Medical Wing, and all hell broke loose.

* * *

A/N: In the game _Dead Space_, the computer core is actually where Kendra Daniels is located. I moved it because Issac can't access it in the game.

While I'm not hugely versed in the Aliens Universe, I believe that the Xenomorph can survive just about any environment their host can survive, and facehuggers themselves are quite virulent. One of the purposes of knocking a host up with a bug was to gain their environmental adaptability to whatever planet/area they were on. As for them surviving the rigors of space, I will expand on this a little bit later on, as the movies have suggested that the Xenos might survive space for short periods of time.

Big Green Pickle - a military euphemism for getting fucked by the military. Usually means your luck sucks.


	13. 13: The Sons And Daughters Of Anarchy

Disclaimer: BioWare owns Mass Effect. 20th Century Fox owns the _Alien_ franchise. EA owns _Dark Space_. FX Network owns the _Sons of Anarchy_ television show, created by Kurt Sutter.

**Hades Nexus Cluster, February 24, 2177**

"_Holy shit!_"

Corporal-Technician Bill Hudson's voice was the first clue that something was off, a split second before a torrent of rounds were fired through the now opened portal of the Medical Bay. The sound was deafening as four independent Spitfires spun up and began to fire all at once at different targets, each tracking a different target that spat out ten rounds per second, sweeping from one target to the next. Corporal Jeanette Vasquez was firing as well, her heavily-modified M56 Marshal with Smart Tracking System roaring as she fired as well, the Marshal bouncing from one target to the next each second. Hudson's Stryker Assault Rifle, while it lacked the auto-targeting capabilities of the other two, had a weapon that generated explosively capable rounds that were created out of a reserve of Omnigel, exploding upon impact, giving off shockwaves of force and destruction that was capable of injury up to a meter away. The Stryker, too, was firing, blasting into the now opened portal alongside the Elcor Bull and _Latino_ Marine.

"_Fuck! Second team! Move up to firing line and suppress!"_

Captain Royce Mason's voice was barely louder than the gunfire on the communicators they all wore as the Australian moved up alongside the first team with Master Chief Stacy Valentino and Specter Recruit Elias Korvan, adding their own barrage of rounds as two M-99 Sabers and a T-24 Phaeston opened up, adding to the punishment that was coming from the hallway leading to the Medical Wing, rounds being fired through the opened door. 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard, standing with her back to a wall alongside the first door leading to the hallway, chanced a look at what six members of her team were firing at, assuming the worst.

Whatever the first room was, it was teeming with bugs.

"Biotics! Ready that black hole power thingie you Asari are supposedly so good at!" Shepard called out, looking to Tela Vasir, Asha T'vara, and Ulla D'veora, who all began to glow blue. What the hell was that thing called again? A Singularity? "Indy? Indy! You and Jedi, ready something that will detonate the Singularities! The room's filled with bugs! Bullets won't do the trick!" Dr. Liara T'soni and Bastila Shan moved forward, readying themselves behind the Asari Specter and Recruits, their hands glowing blue. "Can you ladies launch those things without hitting our people?"

"Without a doubt." The Asari Commando Asha T'vara replied with a smile. Shepard vaguely remembered that she once fought alongside Garrus Vakarian against some invisible creature that managed to hunt and kill an entire Turian Blackwatch Talon Strike team on the planet of Taetrus, the only two to survive. All she could remember being told was that the creature had been defeated in hand-to-hand combat by Garrus Vakarian, but had activated some 'Last Stand' device on its arm that erased something like a square-kilometer of jungle with it.

"Do it."

Shepard, like most humans, was squeamish with the thought of biotics; most thought it some sort of space magic. The result of an embryo being exposed to Eezo poisoning, Humanity was still learning how to develop such abilities to their advantage. Asari, of course, were all born natural biotics, considering that Thessia itself was an Eezo-laced planet. It was so ingrained in the species that daughters with fathers of a different species born on different planets were still biotically-capable with no real loss of power from their pureborn kin. Despite being in love with Tela Vasir, Shepard didn't really trust biotics; to her, it seemed like the old tales of magic, at best unreliable. Despite that, she knew biotics were very real and very effective; Phayre Myraria taught her that with every wall and the ceiling in that room on Hadley's Hope. In Specter School, Cavius Reminion had taught several classes on the use of biotics, and what their potential was in case a Specter had to go against a biotically-capable opponent. Shepard had taken those classes to heart, and had remembered that two biotic strikes together would 'detonate' the residual energy like a powerful grenade.

She was going to give the bugs a taste of that.

Three bolts of biotic energy flew out, curving around the six members of the assault team and striking deep into the room of the Medical Wing. Shepard watched as three separate floating orbs of blue-black energy spun and grew, pulling everything towards them. The room was teeming with bugs; hundreds at the least. When they had opened the door, they had discovered the same secreted resin that had clung to the walls of the Processing Plant on LV 426, the black gunk solidified to the walls of the Medbay. Xenomorphs had being waiting inside for whatever reason, but when the door opened, they began to pour out of every hole, nook, and crannie in the room, dozens dropping to the floor, ready to attack. Naor, Hudson, and Vasquez were able to stop the initial advance, but more bugs were coming from the rafters, walls, and floor than they could handle. When Royce, Val, and Elias added their weapons to the fray, it helped stem the advance of bugs, none of them reaching the door, but it was only a matter of time before someone's weapon overheated. The hallway wasn't large enough to put more bodies in, so Shepard thought of a tactic that would monopolize their strengths without adding to their risks. With five biotically-capable persons, Shepard remembered the class that Reminion had given about biotics. Perhaps she didn't understand them well, but she got the basics down.

"Indy! Jedi! Splash out!"

Dr. Liara T'soni and her lover, Bastila Shan, stepped up as the Asari Specters took to the sides to give them clearance. The Asari Protheanologist and the human researcher both glowed with biotic energy as they both threw their hands out, launching bolts of blue-black energy forward. The three singularities thrown in by Tela, Asha, and Ulla were pulling at the Xenomorphs, several of them floating in the air as many of them clung to walls and flooring to avoid being pulled in by the miniature black holes. The singularities halted their advance as the extra two blasts of energy created by Liara and Bastila struck two of the outer singularities. Shepard watched in fascination as the biotics collided one another… and annihilated themselves explosively. While the Human Specter couldn't remember _why_ it happened, she remembered that it did as the two singularities detonated into concussive force blasts, exploding like depth charges in the oceans in the wars of old. The force caused the third remaining singularity to imploded inward and release its remaining energy violently as well, a weaker blast that was no less dangerous. Shepard didn't know how many bugs had been in that room, but due to its confines and the three large biotic detonations that had just occurred in it, she could see that a vast percentage of them were crushed by the violent wave of pressure and force, smashed and crushed into the ceiling, floor, and walls. Acid was splashed all over the resin-coated surfaces as the Xenomorph bodies leaked their caustic blood from their many wounds and demises, the hiss and acidic stench of the caustic fluid flooding the room. Shepard checked her HUD for her Kuwaskii visor's radar, tracking for movement, and saw that the fifteen remaining contacts were pulling back, reaching 25 meters and getting further.

The bugs were high-tailing it.

"Fuck yeah!" Shepard whooped, laughing as she saw the contacts disappearing off her radar, too far away for her to detect. "Got them on the run! Indy? Jedi? Damn good work on those biotic strikes. Bugs never stood a chance!"

"It was a good plan." Tela Vasir commented with a soft smile, nodding to Shepard, making the Human Specter feel a little bit bashful. "Is that what it was like on LV 426?"

"No. This was nicer." Royce Mason answered, the N7's voice a little resigned. "We have a killzone, and the bugs could come inna one direction. We got lucky, thanks to Janey's quick thinkin'. That shit worked out good. Should do it more often."

"Of course the humans would want more explosions." Elias Korvan chuckled, his flanged voice clearly not serious. "I'm just happy you're not punching holes in the hull, trying to beat things dead with a stick."

"We could always play _Cowboys and Turians_, chicken." Master Chief Valentino winked at the Specter Recruit, the N7's tone not serious either. Royce was trying to hold back a snicker as Hudson laughed out loud. Elias just shook his fringed head, obviously not willing to get into it.

"Sometimes, I swear I feel like every other species is a pre-pubescent daughter learning warpfire for the first time." Tela Vasir muttered to Asha T'vara, who merely smiled and nodded. Unfortunately, the Asari hadn't muttered low enough.

"Because my first thought of what I wanted to be when I grew up was to be rubbing against an Asari stripper in some scum-filled bar, shaking my ass." Kya Drang told Turian Specter Recruit Vona Shatari, the Drell giving her hips a little shake to emphasize her point, making the former C-Sec Data Crimes Investigator snort in response.

"Hey, that bar wasn't filled with scum." Asha T'vara replied, not at all ashamed, Shepard noted. "It paid my way into Commando School. It's not exactly free, you know?"

"Are we seriously having this conversation now?" Shepard forced herself not to facepalm herself in front of everyone. "Broken ship? Bugs? We remember these things, yes?"

"I did it on a dare on Palaven." Elias Korvan admitted, not ashamed either. "Turian ladies didn't seem to be disappointed."

"Ugh! A Turian shaking his plates!" Rahe mimed gagging in her helmet. "That was the worst thing I ever saw. Please tell me you didn't go under the name 'Laser'. Because that was Ancestors-awful!" That had more than a few of the team laughing, Elias included.

"Oh, I should tell you about this strip-off contest that we found about five years back on… what was the name of that outpost again, Royce? Shen-shen?" Val asked, looking sly as the N7 Captain groaned with the memory. Shepard found herself groaning, too; Gods, she knew this was going to come up. "Ten thousand Credit pot for the winner, and guess who _we_ find on stage, shaking _her_ ass in front of God knows who on some drudge-water shithole, wearing only a thong? Bunch of space miners drooling at the sight of this girl who lied about her age…"

"Who was giving me pointers and throwing twenty Credit tips on my line, Val?" Shepard defended herself, pointing a finger right at the N7. About half of the Specter Recruits chuckled at that. "If I remember correctly, you damn near got kicked out because you were drunk and were trying to steal a pole from some other girl." Royce was covering his face, his cheeks _very_ red. "Uncle Royce! Don't act like you weren't right there at that table, drunk and cheering, too."

"David will kill me if he ever finds out." The Australian-born man shook his head glumly, making Shepard laugh. "What?"

"I did tell Pop, Royce, two days later." Shepard told the N7 Captain, who groaned loudly. "I also told him that it was you that started the bar fight that sent about a dozen guys to the infirmary because that one guy tried doing more than getting a show. He wasn't happy to hear that at all, but then I told him what I did with the earnings."

"You won? Nice." Hudson hooted. "I'd shake my ass for ten thousand Credits in front of some strangers."

"Yeah, but people would be throwing Credits at you to put your clothes back on, _cabron_." Vasquez replied with a grin, making Hudson laugh. "I certainly didn't get no ten grand strippin' in Old L.A. What did you do with the Credits?"

"She gave the money to an N5 named Rhys Lewellen." Stacy Valentino answered immediately, her voice sober as her face went kind, the affection she had for the Human Specter evident. "Damn girl slinks her way into some filthy shithole for a stripper contest with a pot on it, and we go and chase her down. I thought the girl was trying to earn herself some cash since she was slated to go to the Naval Academy like… two months later? Girl didn't have a dime to her name, so I thought she didn't want to be poor." The N7 shook her head, smiling. "No, little Janey Shepard bribes some Navy pilot to take her to Shen-shen so she can win this contest, or at least get a good healthy dose of tips, because Gunnery Sergeant Rhys Lewellen's son had a rare genetic lung condition that the Alliance Military had been dealing with for years. Corporate had some bill signed where little six year old Padrig Lewellen wouldn't end up getting the treatment he needed, and Gunny couldn't afford the necessary genemods that would let him live a normal life. Price of the genemods? Ten thousand Credits. She did it to save a kid from… what the hell was it called? Sis-something Fiber-osis?"

"Cystic Fibrosis." Shepard corrected her Aunt Val, a little embarrassed. She wasn't ashamed that she had done it, but for some reason, having her Aunt explain it embarrassed her a little bit. "The money was to buy the genemod necessary to keep his lungs from hardening, to let him live a full, healthy life." Everyone stared at her in silence, and it embarrassed her further. "What? So I shook my ass for some cash. There's an eleven year old boy who isn't going to have to wake up gasping for breath ever again, or strain to breath. You should have seen Gunny Lewellen's face when I handed him the money. I seriously thought he was literally going to shit a brick, right then and there. Padrig got the genemod like… three days later. Pop approved of the leave, and… well, he was proud of what I did. He wasn't happy _how_ I did it, but he understood. I couldn't just stand there and let some kid suffer needlessly, so… strip-off contest." She didn't mention that the then 17 year old Jane Shepard had a horrible crush on Gunnery Sergeant Rhys Lewellen, the N5 who had taught her how to use a rocket pack, how to base jump, paraglide, and to fly the UT-47 Kodiak Personnel Shuttle. Unfortunately, things hadn't worked the way she had wanted to between them. Still, she didn't regret it.

"I certainly never made ten thousand Credits stripping." Asha lamented with a grumble, making Val laugh out loud.

"Oh, neither did Janey. She walked away with… what? Twenty-one thousand? The bar had to use a broom to rake in her cash." The N7 wiggled her eyebrows, embarrassing Shepard further.

"Twenty-two thousand, four hundred and nineteen Credits." The Marine Lieutenant replied, a little abashed. "If you saw the competition, you'd know why I was the crowd favorite. Most of those women were Krogan-ugly."

"What did you do with the rest of the money?" Vas asked, curious. "Twelve grand get you some stuff, _chica_. What does a kid at Annapolis buy while at Naval Academy?"

"A motorcycle." That had Shepard smile. "A down payment on the best fucking motorcycle ever made by man; a 200-anniversary edition '47 Knuckle." Most of the aliens were looking at one another, mystified as to what she was talking about.

"That is a bike." Hicks nodded appreciatively. "Diesel or Fusion?"

"Please! Diesel! Every weekend I was on that thing, driving somewhere new. Almost joined an MC." That had Hicks chuckling. "Okay, memory lane is officially closed. We got bugs to stomp and people to rescue. And Hudson? Stop thinking about me shaking my ass."

"How could you tell?" The Corporal-Technician asked, defensively.

"You're still drooling."

* * *

The Medical Wing of the _Ishimura_ was a mess.

The secreted resin that the 343 Mobile Infantry had first encountered on LV 426 was coating almost every surface of Medical, black and beyond reason as the twenty-five members of 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard's team entered into what was the central room of the Medbay. There appeared to be three separate doorways leading away from the central room, all stuck open from the resin that coated everything. Shepard's eyes scanned everything in the large room, looking at every hole that Xenomorphs could come from. There were a depressing amount, sadly.

"_Brynhilder_? Concussive force, single shot, with incendiary effect." The Human Specter told her Serrice Counsel armor's VI, linked to her Kuwashii Visor and her Specter Gear HMWAR Mark VII Assault Rifle. Her visor chimed the completed operation as Shepard raised her rifle, and aimed at one of the bug holes. "Fire in the hole!" She fired once, sending a shot right into the hole, where the round impacted against one of the sides. The concussive blast of the shot shattered the resin to pieces, while the incendiary effect superheated them causing them to melt together, efficiently plugging the hole. Shepard smiled as the incendiary cooled off, seeing that no more bugs would be coming through that hole. One down, a few dozen to go. "Hicks, Vrataski, Val, Mason? Trackers up. Vas, Naor, Elias, take the doors, and splatter anything that tries to come in. Everyone else, guns up and fire at anything that crawls while I plug these holes." Shepard ordered, seeing Naor the Bull lumber to face the Emergency Wing, Corporal Jeanette Vasquez taking the Imagining and Diagnostic Wing, and Elias Korvan the Reserach Wing, their heavy weapons pointed at the opened doors and ready to fire. Humanity's First Specter began to methodically plug up the holes with her Mark VII, each concussive shot breaking apart the holes, the high-temperature of the incendiary melting it together to make it unusable for the Xenomorphs. True, they could probably break through with some work, but the idea was to slow them down, to buy the Specters and Marines time. Most likely, the bugs would come through the three access of the opened doors through Emergency, Imagining and Diagnostic, and Research, being large and open. Most likely, they would come through all three at once, like the bugs in LV 426 did at Hadley's Hope. They could use the previous corridor as a fatal funnel for numbers, keeping the trackers on for potential movement. Shepard shot over forty holes in the walls and ceiling of the Medbay, keeping her eyes open for more. "Who's got the best eyesight out of all the species?"

"The Volus." Cavius Reminion replied immediately, the Turian Specter Instructor nodding. "Even with their suits, their vision exceeds Turians by a good margin. Drell have the second best."

"Cur? Kya? Look around for any hole that is big enough to squeeze a Quarian through." Shepard replied, looking at the Volus and Drell Specter Recruits as they began to methodically point out holes that she might have missed due to the resin's configuration and angles. Kur Dileed simply pointed them out with one of his M-4 Shuriken with its taclight on, illuminating it. There were several that he found, Shepard plugging them in with audacity. Kya Drang did the same with her Armax Arsenal Punisher sniper rifle, adding another dozen smaller holes. The two Specter Recruits took their time, going over everything twice before they were satisfied there wasn't a hole someone could stick their arm through. They may have gone overboard, but Shepard wasn't going to complain.

"SHODAN, can you hear me?" Shepard asked the air, wondering if the VI had any sensors working in the Medical Wing.

"_Y-y-yes, Lieutenant (tenant)._" The Ship's VI replied neutrally.

"Location of survivors."

"_Emergen (gen) (gen) cy Wing, In-in-intensive CARE Unitttttt."_

"Yeah, I'm rather glad it isn't the Research Wing." Shepard intoned, getting Ellen Ripley to nod her head as well; she just had that nasty feeling that if the Queen was truly on the Medical Deck, then the Bitch would be there. They hadn't found any type of clue how the Xenomorphs had gotten onto the _Ishimura_ so Shepard arrived at her own conclusions; someone had brought the fuckers in and started experimenting. Hadley's Hope all over again. Looking at the door with the rolling marquee marked 'Research Wing' just read 'Bad Shit Here' in Shepard's mind. There were, after all, ten eggs from Hadley's Hope unaccounted for, not to mention the hundreds from the original Space Jockey crash site discovered by Dallas, Lambert, and Kane from the _Nostromo_. Add the information that Carter Burke had stolen back on the Citadel, and it wasn't hard for Shepard to put some of the pieces together. The _Ishimura_… a planet-fracker on an illegal operation in the middle of dead space… what a perfect scenario! She couldn't believe she didn't consider it before! There was something like over a thousand personnel on the ship, hosted over some shit planet that no one really wanted, in a barely surveyed system. Perfect smokescreen for illegal research and a ship-cum petrie dish! Bugs were stuck on the ship, and one could just crash the ship and call it an accident if things went wrong.

So what had gone wrong? Bugs hadn't damaged the ship, not to the extent that the VI was claiming. They certainly hadn't fucked with SHODAN. That didn't sound like a Corporation-sponsored death ride. The _Ishimura_ had to have been a breeding ground, like Hadley's Hope, possibly constantly used. They would have wanted it mostly intact, like a spiders' web or a Venus fly trap, catching ignorant victims. Something else must have happened.

"SHODAN? Access Ships' Log." Shepard asked once more, having failed before. There was something they were missing; she could feel it.

"_Sh-sh-ship's Log access unavailable (available)._" The VI replied once more, stymying her.

"Should be working. Daeporm and Vona both worked on it, and they know computers." Royce replied, his tone worried. "We spent thirty minutes guardin' 'em while they did it. Thought you said it would work?" The Australian looked to the Salarian and Turian in question.

"Said _should_ work." Daeporm Norban replied, his hyperactive voice clipped as he spoke quickly. "Code was corrupted extensively. Did what could to make patches. Does not mean will work perfectly."

"Great." Shepard sighed, shaking her head. She didn't blame Daeporm or Vona for the VI situation; someone had done a number to it, and it usually took four times as long to fix something than it did to break it. "Well, whoever messed with SHODAN did a good job. At the least, the power isn't fluctuation and the gravity drive still works, so we got something. Perhaps we can find a server, or perhaps the Captains' personal terminal. There's usually a back-up that protected from such things for incidences such as these. Perhaps it didn't get fried. SHODAN? Where is the Captains' personal terminal?"

"_C-c-captain Benjamin (jamin) Matthias-s-s' personal work staTION issssszzzz…. *Garble* is located in-in the Bridge."_

"Oh, goody." Garrus Vakarian spouted, his tone disgusted. No one wanted to head back to the Bridge after riling up the bugs as they had just done.

"_C-c-captain Benjamin Ma-ma-matthias is currently LOCATED in Emergen-gen-gency Ward (ward)." _The VI supplied, making Shepard stop in in her proverbial tracks.

"Is he alive?" She asked, hopeful. SHODAN said there were some survivors from the _Ishimura…_

"_Ne-ne-negative."_ Well, so much for that… "_Captain (ain) Matthias does con-con-contain a data pad with h-h-his latest logssssszzzzzz…. *Garble* You maaaaayyyyy be able to access (access) the past several en-en-entries."_

"Well, it's better than nothing." Shepard shrugged, looking to Tela Vasir, who nodded in agreement. "Survivors are in the Emergency Wing, Captain's body and data pad are in the Emergency Wing. I'd say we got ourselves a destination and a goal. Whose up for going into the creepy, bug-infested tunnel on a rescue mission with me? Heavies and trackers excluded."

"And miss the chance at getting corrosive acid on my envirosuit? Count me in." Rahe'Tarram replied, her tone bubbly as she checked her Quarian Carbine Shotgun, readying it for action.

"I'll go." Garrus Vakarian volunteered, surprising Shepard a little. Not that Garrus wasn't brave, but the former Deathwatch member had originally had issues with Shepard back during Specter School; nothing overt or bad, just little things. In all honest, she couldn't blame him; she was the daughter of two human fighter pilots that were responsible for killing more Turians than had happened since… well… probably the Second Unification Wars or the Krogan Rebellion. It hadn't been that long since the FCW, and if humanity was having trouble adjusting to the fact that aliens exist, then it was only fair that the aliens might have a thing or two against humanity. It wasn't like humanity was innocent of more than a few occasions and loud-mouth bigots. Thankfully, Garrus was a consummate professional; he watched over his team regardless of race. For that, he had her complete respect as she nodded towards him, the large Turian shouldering his M92 Mantis Sniper Rifle. Right next to him were two more additions; Asha T'vara and Jondum Bau. The Salarian Specter Recruit was a welcomed addition, as Jondum was both fierce and intelligent, a credit to his kind. Asha… not so much. If there was anyone in her class that Shepard could say that she despised, it was the former Commando Asha T'vara, the 182 year old Maiden a complete and utter snob. There was always a snide comment or the smug, superior looks she would get when Shepard didn't know an answer, especially on something that everyone else knew since Counsel Species had an educational requirement quote for the children of each species to know a certain level of history. Shepard didn't know any of it, and had to play a lot of catch-up, and it seemed that Asha T'vara was the one to make sure that Shepard knew she had the short end of the stick. Why had she volunteered? Shepard thought better than to ask as the Asari Specter Recruit as the Asari Vanguard shouldered her Asari-made Disciple Shotgun. She felt the slightest touch of comfort through her damaged bond from Tela in response to her concern, and Shepard gave the Matriarch a smile smile in gratitude. She missed feeling her presence, and she was grateful for even the slightest of shared feelings.

"Okay, people, let's go free some frightened humans."

* * *

The Emergency Wing of the Medical Deck was much like the first room of the Medbay; a resin-coated nightmare of humidity and darkness.

"Fuck me for wanting to dive into this shit again." 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard muttered to herself as she took the lead of the five-man team. The half-hallway, half-tunnel of the Emergency Wing was pushing 40 Celsius, and sweat dripped down her forehead and face, her red hair damp with perspiration as she fought not to wipe at her face with her armored gloves. If her suit wasn't out of air, she'd put her helmet on to fight off the worse of it. Unfortunately, they hadn't found an Oxygen Recharge Station, and she hadn't a chance to go back to the supply cache to get some more. A stupid oversight. If someone dumped atmo, she'd be choking to death again. She moved her head around a stalagmite as she stalked the alien corridor, her Specter Gear HMWAR Mark VII Assault Rifle leading the way as her taclight swept everything as the Kuwashii Visor going over her left eye displayed its radar on the HUD, tracking for movement. They hadn't gotten deep in the Emergency Wing yet, probably forty meters or so, but the humidity, darkness, and stress were having its toll on her. It was just like back on LV 426, walking in blind. At the least they were better armed. "Keep your eyes open, people. These fuckers love an ambush."

"_I know something that would _love_ to hunt these things_." Garrus Vakarian said over the communicator, his flanged voice soft as he picked up the rear, his powerful sniper rifle sweeping just as Shepard's was. "_Two perfect hunters going head-to-head. Don't know which one I'd root for._"

"Sounds friendly." The Human Specter replied, knowing only a little of the incident that the former Blackwatch Talon Strike member was referring to, and incident in which he was the sole survivor of his team, and somehow pulled Asha T'vara out of as well. She didn't ask; bad form, after all. "All I can think of is… damn, I wish I had gone for a fistful of Krogan. These fuckers sound just like the damn Rachni the Salarians and Asari are always crying about."

"Could they be?" Rahe'Tarram nar Sofis asked, her Quarian Carbine Shotgun doing a z-patterned search along one wall. "Acid, survives harsh environments, mauls its opponents. Wasn't that what the Rachni did?"

"They aren't the Rachni." Tela Vasir replied softly, her own Mark VII scanning the ceiling as they slowly moved their way through the resin-coated tunnel. "I've seen pictures. I'm not sure which is worse, but these creatures don't seem to make their own vessels, which the Rachni did."

"They've certainly turned this Wing into home." Shepard again fought the urge to wipe at her sweaty forehead, stinging her eyes as it dripped down onto her face. "Gods it's fucking hot in here. Hotter than LV 426, and that was inside a Matter/Anti-Matter Processing Terraforming Plant." Her rifle scanned a hole that was more than large enough for a bug to pop out of. "Fire in the hole." Shepard fired a single concussive round with incendiary effect, shattering the hole and fusing the broken pieces together to deny an entry point. "Ski was right; they do like it hot, dark and steamy." The mutter was to herself, but with her communicator on, ever member of her five-man Team Valkyrie heard her words anyhow. Didn't matter, Shepard mused as she continued through the tunnel at a quarter pace, taking it slow and easy. She was intent to clear every foot of tunnel they walked through so they had somewhere to retreat in case things got bad. Gods forbid they got flanked. "How we looking back there, Vakarian?"

"_So far, so good._" The sniper replied simply, his Turian eyes checking everything. "_Still trying to picture you shaking your ass-plates on stage, Shepard. Like a white Asari with a red floppy crest._" That had Jondum Bau snicker, and even Shepard had a smile on her lips. Perhaps the Turian might not like her for being a human, but he wasn't a bad sort for a Turian.

"What? My waist not supportive enough, big guy?" The Human Specter shot back as she put another round into a hole in the resin wall, sealing it. "Why do Turian men look at a Turian girl's waist?"

"_Why do human men oogle those things on your chest? It's chemistry."_ The sniper answered, simple but effective. Shepard had to admit, it was probably the best explanation there could possibly be; hormones and evolution, different species had different preferences. She might not understand the waist thing, having listened to Elias Korvan lament and fondly dream about waists during breaks at Specter School, naming some Turian female with a… whatever a pleasing waist was. Hourglass? Straight? Ticklish? Shepard had no idea. Probably as hard to explain to a Turian why human men oogled the _things_ on her chest when their females didn't have breasts. Did Turians even breastfeed their babies? She remembered Cavius mentioning something about 'hatchlings' before… Shit! Turians were born from eggs! That made her wonder how the other species gave birth. Were anything of them like humans? She tried imagining it for a brief moment, and got a nasty picture of Salarian tadpoles in her brain. Did… did Asari have babies like humans did? Shepard was almost afraid to ask Tela about that; might seem too suggestive.

_Oh shit… I could be a father!_

That thought had her stop dead in her tracks.

"Jane? Is everything okay?" Tela Vasir asked, her tone a little worried. The Asari Specter had been right behind her in their single-column file, and Tela almost collided into the Human Specter. Everyone's weapons scanned more aggressively, thinking that she had seen something. For once, she was glad of the dark; she knew she was blushing, the heat in her cheeks hotter than the humid air of the Xenomorph-made tunnel. She wished she could talk to Tela through the bond; this wasn't the time for the birds and bees discussion with the Asari.

"Um… flashback. Sorry." Shepard quickly interjected, hating that she had to lie. Perhaps if they had the chance, she could pull Tela aside and have a real discussion with her. It seemed like, half the time, their conversations were about anything else _but _them, and the rest of the times about helping Shepard overcome her own biological skepticism. "I'm half-afraid that I'll turn a corner and see that first girl I shot in the chest." That wasn't a lie, Shepard remembering what had remained of the colonists of Hadley's Hope. Somewhere on the _Ishimura_, there would be a nest. Her first kill, some innocent teenaged girl not much younger than her, begging for death. "You see someone glued to the wall, with an opened egg and a dead facehugger nearby? Open order for mercy." The steel was in her voice, remembering the picture of Russ Jorden's expression as _something_ pushed its way out of his chest, little Rebecca Jorden watching the whole ordeal in terror. _Never again._ Not a word was spoken as Shepard saw the others look at one another for a brief moment, the various looks of concern across different species. "What?"

"We could possibly remove embryo before birthing process." Jondum Bau finally said, his tone level, the Salarian Specter Recruit blinking his large black eyes. "Would save unfortunate victim."

"Except we don't have the facilities, the equipment, the tools, or the expertise to do so." Shepard pointed out, frowning. "While I agree with you in the perfect world sense, Jondum, that was the kind of shit Weyland-Yutani was doing to my species… and yours. And yours." She pointed out Asha T'vara, who was taken aback. "And yours." Garrus' mandibles quivered slightly, obviously not pleased. "And… yours." Rahe'Tarram put a three-fingered hand over her heart, as if wounded. "The only ones they didn't do their sick fucking experiments on were the Volus and Vorcha. Not sure if the bugs didn't like them, or they couldn't secure any."

"That was never mentioned in your report on the mission." Garrus Vakarian pointed out. The Turian had evidently taken it serious.

"Counsel orders." Shepard sighed, doing her best to shake some of the sweat off her brow. "They are aware of it, but they didn't include it among the information packets sent to the other Specters at the time for two reasons, the first being that they were pretty sure that just about every species would be howling for human blood if they discovered what a few sick bastards were doing. The second…" Shepard closed her eyes and sighed, wishing that she hadn't broached this subject, that she wouldn't have to tell the truth. "The second part is that someone in my government took an unknown amount of specimens from LV 426 at some point in time; at the very least ten facehuggers, but also an unknown amount of eggs from the derelict ship that Ripper discovered in 2121. We… could be dealing with some of that right now. Another Godsdamn fucking experiment on my people, for my people." She turned her back to them, unable to face them anymore; she couldn't hold back her tears, the shame that she felt that someone _human_ had undoubtedly done this to a ship filled with humans. Over one thousand personnel… was this another experiment? How else would a Xenomorph make it onto the _Ishimura_? A Queen? The worst part was the fact that _she_ was suppose to be the bug expert, but sadly Shepard was merely the _Counsel's_ bug expert. Someone in Corporate knew a lot more, despite the captured information she and Alliance Science Officer Lance Bishop were able to gleam from the colony on LV 426. "We've been their petrie dishes for _decades_; what more can they do to us?"

"Jane." Tela spoke up softly, the Asari Specter's hand going gently to her shoulder. "That is why it is more important than ever that you keep a cool head, to figure this out and stop it. For the first time, your planet has someone that will stand up for it, to fight for what is right. They fear you, Jane Catherine Shepard; they fear what you represent."

"What do I represent?" She asked the Asari listlessly, her heart heavy.

"A future without them." The Thessian replied, her voice assured. "A hope that others can stand behind. That is why you are _Humanity's_ First Specter, not the Alliance's, not Earth's, and not Corporate's. You represent every Son and Daughter of Earth, no matter how deep in space they go. You are their guiding light, the torchbearer of your species. You are without agenda, without sides, a champion of causes and righteousness. That is what makes a Specter, Jane." Tela looked to the others, who realized that she was including them in the knowledge. "Of every Specter in the Office of Special Tactics, only you, Rahe'Tarram, and Khel Burram are the sole representatives of your species. There hasn't been a Quarian Specter since the Morning War, all of them having died defending their race as the evacuated Rannoch. There hasn't been a Krogan Specter since the start of the Krogan Rebellion over fourteen hundred years ago. And you are simply the first of your kind to have made it this far. Every other species in Citadel Space is represented by at least ten Specters, and the Turians and Asari have hundreds. Yet you three are unique, you hold the mantle of your entire species. Khel Burram… he walked into the Office of Special Tactics one day, and simply asked for the job. When the Executor of the time asked him why he should, the Krogan simply responded that _someone_ needed to keep the Krogan in check, and what better than a Krogan Warlord with centuries of battles under his belt? After several tests to ensure he wasn't to do anything stupid, he became the first Krogan of Special Tactics since the Krogan broke off from the Counsel. He's done his species proud in the past eighty years, and he's garnered a small following of Krogan who wish to follow in his footsteps. Think about that, Jane; a Krogan showing other Krogan what it means to walk a better path. We may have two Krogan Recruits in the next year or so, as Burram is training them to fight both like Krogan warriors, but also like disciplined warriors. Perhaps one day, more Krogan will see that there is hope for their kind, and will slowly start to change. That is what Khel Burram stands for; a future for the Krogan."

"Wow." Shepard thought it over, what Tela had told her, looking to Rahe, whose silver eyes were wide as well. She knew what she was doing was important, but the gravity of the situation, the fullness of it… she hadn't realized. "I thought being a Specter was, I dunno, like being the ultimate cop or something."

"It is… but law enforcement is also meant to bring hope to those who are good, while to instill obedience in those who are not." The Asari replied with a smile, reminding Shepard that Tela Vasir was once an Investigator on Illum. "Does law enforcement not do this on Earth?"

"Um… no. We've got private law enforcement security firms in most Alliance nations." Shepard replied dejectedly, thinking of some of the companies that run the police, like OCP, the Blackwater PMC, and the MNU. "There aren't many publicly-funded cops on Earth, usually in small areas in poor nations. South Africa has got the Tetravaal Scouts in Jo'berg, a mechanized police force run by VI." She wasn't about to mention why mechanized police were needed in Jo'berg, or the Scouts' much larger, much deadlier counterpart, the Tetravaal Rhino. "Maybe you're right, Tela, perhaps Earth needs something else, a symbol the people can stand behind. Something better. I… I just hope that I can be good enough for that. Especially now." Shepard had to look away again, fighting off the tears. How the hell was she suppose to do that? She was just a Marine, a single woman amongst humanity. What was so special about her? Was she like Khel Burram, hoping to be an inspiration for others? A defender? A torch? Is this what the other First Specters felt like when they became the first of their kind in the Office of Special Tactics? It seemed too much.

"Jane, I believe in you."

Shepard looked to Tela's face, the Asari smiling, and despite the glooming darkness of the resin-coated tunnel of the Emergency Ward, the smile cut through and gave her a little bit of hope and peace. Perhaps that was what she truly was; a beacon in the darkness.

"Thanks, _dhan'rana_." The Marine finally replied, knowing that she would have to think long and hard about all that Tela had told her. The Thessian was right, of course, and if she truly were going to represent all of humanity for the better, then she would need to figure out what she would represent. Others might end up following in her footsteps, and Shepard wanted it to be the kind of people she'd be proud to stand alongside, not some Corporate-sponsored goon or thug with an over-developed trigger finger.

"_If y'all are done gushing over one another,"_ a hard male voice came from a speaker, startling them all, _"perhaps you can help us get out of this Goddamn room."_

"Um, fuck. Where are you?" Shepard asked out loud, her weapon training for any possible movement, as well as the source of the voice. A personal intercom, perhaps?

"_Johner, move aside! I'm the one that got the intercom working!"_ A woman's voice came up as there was a two-second scuffle heard over the speaker, a slight amount of feedback coming through. _"Hello? This is Wynona Call! We're stuck in one of the Emergency Rooms! There's a bunch of aliens in the ship, and we blocked access from them! Can you please come rescue us?"_

"_Shouldn't we ask them who they are?_" That was a _Latino-_sounding man, his voice soft as he presumably asked the woman, Wynona, probably near her so he wouldn't be overheard. _"Might not be friendlies."_

"_Seriously, DiStephano? Right now, I'd take in Batarians if it got us out of here."_ Another man spoke up, an authoritative tone to his voice. "_Besides, we got weapons. If they ain't friendly, we can blast them."_

"_What Hammond said._" Another man agreed.

"We can still hear you…" Shepard replied in a sing-song voice, prompting an end to the debate in the room filled with survivors. She found the speaker in question; mostly covered in resin. There was probably a door right by it, covered in the shit. They were going to have to find a way in, or to break it apart to get to the people. "I'm 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard…" she looked to the Specters behind her, frowning for a moment, hoping that her on-the-fly plan would work, "of the Office of Special Tactics. I've got Marines and Specters on-board looking for survivors, answering a distress call from Engineer Temple. The Counsel got your call, and I answered."

There was a good five seconds worth of silence afterwards.

"_Clark? Call? Let's get that hatch open. I really don't give a shit anymore who or what they are." _This was a new voice, a gravely male bass that sounded to be in charge. "_Betty's out there, and we're in here. I'll take any help we can get."_

"_We're opening the door, might take a minute."_ The one who identified herself as Call spoke up again, her tone obviously relieved. "_Issac? Get that burner of yours over here. That thing will melt through this crap in no time."_

"_What a waste of ammo." _The first man spoke up, overheard by the intercom's microphone, making Shepard roll her eyes.

* * *

Of all the people they had to rescue, they ended up rescuing mercs and pirates.

1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard stood in front of a motley group of fourteen human survivors, ranging from maintenance personnel of the _Ishimura_ to ragtag space shitheads. How they had all ended up together at once in the same location was probably in the statistical range of pure stupid luck, but somehow, three separate groups of shipmates had somehow converged into one of the examination rooms of the Emergency Wing of the Medical Deck, burning their way in by means of a physical Omnigel-burning torch. Shepard looked over the remaining survivors of the _Ishimura_ and wasn't very impressed.

"Frank Elgyn, Captain of the ICV _Betty_." The tall, pale man came up first, holding out his hand to shake, his gravely voice distinctive, as well as his prominent nose. He was dressed in a black leather trenchcoat, with what appeared to bit bits and pieces of scrap armor underneath, mostly from an Onyx chassis. In his hands was a M-96 Mattock, a civilian model that one saw out on the Colonies for militia. But what had her attention was the patch that she saw over his heart on his trenchcoat, simply reading 'SOA'.

"Of all the fucking people I could save in the galaxy…" Shepard sighed as she looked to Tela Vasir and shook her head as she crossed her arms under her breasts, "I had to go and fucking save the Godsdamn Sons of Anarchy Mercenary Company and Riding Organization."

That had silence hit the room like a ton of bricks for a good few seconds.

"You know who we are?" A dark-skinned man asked, surprised. He was wearing what appeared to be an olive-drab military-styled coat with a nametape on it that read 'Christie' on it. Shepard didn't miss the two M-5 Phalanxs on his legs, or the chopped M-23 Katana he had in his hands.

"Surprisingly, I've actually met you assholes before, a few years back. In Sturgis, of all places." Shepard replied, completely non-plussed. "I'm actually surprised Johner doesn't remember me. I'm the one who wrote on his face with broken glass." She referred to the series of brutal-looking scars that ran down the face of Johner 'the Beast' Perlman, a Cro-Magnon-looking man who easily towered over the other humans, a hyperaggressive thug with a mean streak a parsec wide. He was armed with an M-6 Carnifax and a modified M-300 Claymore, a highly-illegal weapon in Citadel Space due to its power and amount of mass accelerated metal it could fire. Shepard hadn't forgotten Johner Perlman. Hadn't forgiven him, either. The reminder darkened the face of the thug, or perhaps he couldn't remember why his face was carved up, and wasn't too pleased with meeting up with the woman that had bottled him with a broken glass of beer.

"I like her already." That came from a slip of a girl that sounded like Wynona Call, a dark-haired woman who seemed out of place among the mercenaries. She certainly didn't look like a crow-eater, but neither did she look like a crewmember of the _Ishimura_ or an employee of the CEC. Still, she was wearing what appeared to be the patch for the organization; a grim reaper armed with a M-96 Mattock with a scythe coming out of its barrel on her shoulder. She wasn't the only woman in the group, there was another who hung around Frank Elgyn like a crow-eater that had a patch, too.

"So how did a bunch of ice pirates get stuck on the _Ishimura_?" Shepard asked, looking to the several members she could see; the Captain of the _Betty_, the crow-eater by his side, Johner, the one marked 'Christie', the woman she identified as Wynona Call, and strangely enough, a dwarf in a motorized wheelchair armed with a double-barreled Scimitar. Ice piracy was a rather large criminal activity in Alliance Space, since few planets had water that didn't need to be purified, decontaminated, and chemically treated to make it potable. The easiest way to transport water was to drain it from a Garden World, send it to space to freeze, and ship it, as ice was more compact than water, which couldn't be volumized any smaller unless it went into its solid, icy phaze. There was also ice asteroids and comets that could be captured and sold to planets whose ecosystem took too long to make fresh, potable water. Thus ice piracy; the theft of renewable water in an ecosystem, a total loss that could cause environmental shifts. It was why all Alliance ships dumped their waste water in the same planet they got it from; water was too precious to cart away permanently, as Earth had suffered from such oversight during earlier space exploration, and caused a drought that almost crippled the planet fifty years before.

"Cargo transportation." Elgyn replied immediately, his gravely voice calm and assured. "The Captain, Matthias, had contacted us to do a little cargo run for him. We delivered."

"Uh-huh…" Shepard tapped her foot as she continued to cross her arms, staring at the man. The lack of detail was a typical pirate's answer. "Which would explain why you're still here during an emergency lockdown, instead of leaving after said 'cargo' was dropped off and the bill paid." _Oh…_ "He didn't pay you yet, did he?"

"Fuckin' Jew." Johner Perlman muttered, obviously pissed about that. That was one way to keep a bunch of shifty transporters in one spot. But why do that? Shepard thought it out, looking to Tela Vasir, who was also contemplating what she had heard.

"What did you transport?" Shepard asked, her voice hard; she had a really, _really_ nasty thought about that cargo. A Corporation like CEC hiring some shifty 'transportation' personnel to make a delivery? No one hired the Sons of Anarchy for their sterling reputation.

"Don't know. Didn't ask, didn't care." Elgyn replied with a shrug of his shoulders, at least he wasn't lying about that, the Human Specter thought to herself. "Money was good, and the cargo wasn't protected. It was just sitting out on some small observation station in the Zeta Reticulli System, just waiting to be picked up. Wasn't even guarded." Shepard felt herself pale at the name of the system. She didn't know of any small observation station, but those were easily moved and relocated, usually some VI-driven listening post that would carry a few supplies for emergencies. Zeta Reticulli, a nowhere system that had nothing of interest except a single wildcat colony on a moon of Calampos, recently made uninhabitable by none other than herself.

_Oh… fuck…_

"Small cannisters? Ten of them?" Shepard asked, feeling her heart drop away. The Captain of the _Betty_ had an odd look on his face at the question as he looked to the crow-eater by his side, the woman armed with an old M41A1 Pulse Rifle copper-tosser slung on her shoulder looking right back at Frank Elgyn with the same look. Shepard had guessed right. "Shit. I know what you fucking transported, Elgyn. You transported bugs; specifically, eggs containing facehuggers that latch onto your face and knock you up with Xenomorphs. The same ones that are on this very ship." That had the SOA members each looking at one another, alarmed. "How long ago was the delivery made? Had to have been a least a week, probably just over ten days."

"Eleven days ago. Emergency lockdown went into effect seven days ago." Call replied, her tone worried. "You're saying _we_ brought this here?"

"Yes."

"Fuck me." Perlman spouted, flinging his arms in the air as he slowly turned, aggetated. "Money was too good, Frank. Told you that."

"Bullshit, Johner." The wheelchair-bound dwarf replied, an odd accent to his voice. "You jumped on the gig like a ten Credit whore." That had Call and the crow-eater chuckle.

"Captain kept you here for hosts." Shepard shook her head, amazed by it all. At the least, she knew what happened to the eggs in Hadley's Hope that the SSV _Sulaco_ took. "Just be happy you aren't expectant mothers. Who are the rest of you?"

"I'm Captain Zachary Hammond, of the _Kellion_, former Alliance Navy." A bald man marched forward with his hand extended, which Shepard did take. The dark-skinned man had the presence and authority that easily marked him a former military man. She noted that he was armed with the old SWS motorized Pulse Rifle, the triple-barreled weapon that was still a fairly common copper-tosser despite Mass-Effect weaponry. Physical rounds, unlike mass-accelerated shavings of metal, went at a much slower speed than the standard weaponry, which also meant that shields that most used to protect themselves from mass-accelerated fire wouldn't stop chemical propellent rounds, as they were designed to stop metal going at a fraction of the speed of light, not a multiple of the speed of sound. Load up a copper-tosser with hollow-points, armor-piercing, or anti-personnel rounds, and it was still a threat to most species in the galaxy, if not a great one. "We were dispatched by CEC for regular maintenance and to deliver replacement parts, pretty routine stuff. We walked into this shitstorm about eleven days ago. With me are my communications technician, Kendra Daniels," a blonde woman in a CEC spacer uniform nodded her head, "and my maintenance and engineer guru, Issac Clark." A middle-aged man with greying-brown hair and a space-engineer suit armed with a Bolter Pistol and a rigged blow torch with an Omnigel canister nodded as well. Both looked competent and in control of themselves. That was good. "I'm sorry to say that the _Kellion_ is no longer in service. I'm afraid it is no longer available for space travel. We had two more with us, Corporals Chen and Johnston with the SAMC, but…" A slow shaking of his head indicated the fate of the two Marines.

"Okay." There was more to it than that, Shepard noted, but that could wait for the time being.

"I'm Doctor Terrence Kyne, Chief Science Officer of the _Ishimura_, and the highest-ranking individual left aboard the ship." A older, balding man came forward, wearing the traditional Doctor's lab coat and a CEC employee jumpsuit underneath. "With me are Security Officer Vincent DiStephano, the last surviving member of the _Ishimura's_ Security Team," a hard-looking _Latino_ man armed with an M-7 Lancer with a SAMC tattoo on his neck was easily identified, "Larry Purvis, one of our Hydroponics workers," a bespecacled man who was nervously sweating raised his hand timidly, "Nurse Practitioner Elizabeth Cross," a pretty dark-haired woman in scrubs gave a wane smile, "and Jacob Temple, our Acting Chief Engineer." A lean man in an engineers' suit who looked like a mechanic should was standing quite close to the nurse.

"Temple?" Shepard recognized the name. "You sent the distress beacon!" That had the Engineer look shocked for a moment, but a smile appeared on his face.

"Thank the Maker that got through. Wasn't sure anyone got it." Jacob Temple replied, looking over to Dr. Kyne with a grin. "Told you I could do it, even after I tore out all the relays and connections."

"Wait… what?" Shepard couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You… sabotaged the ship's computer system?"

"With my help." Issac Clark replied, folding his arms across his chest. "I'm still surprised we survived all that. She didn't make it easy…"

"Who didn't make it easy?" Tela Vasir asked, the first time she had done so. It had been an unspoken agreement that Shepard would talk to the humans, the other Specters there merely to support her if needed. It was, after all, better for a human to deal with humans in a stressful situation than some aliens. Especially with the Sons of Anarchy around.

"SHODAN, of course." Wynona Call answered, as if it were the most obvious answer in the world.

"SHODAN. The Ship's VI." Shepard repeated, her tone flat. Why the fuck would they do that? Without anyone maintaining or piloting the ship, it would crash into Aegis VII in a matter of days or weeks! "Why the fuck would you unplug the ship's computer operating system?"

"Oh no…" Rahe'Tarram nar Sofis lamented softly as she shook her helmeted head slowly, her silvery eyes going completely white in her visor as they widened. That surprised Shepard; she had never seen that before as the normally-fearless Quarian drywashed her hands. "No, no, no… please tell me it isn't true…" The Human Specter was confused; Rahe wasn't afraid of anything. What would scare a Quarian…

Oh… _oh_ _shit_…

"_I have existed from the morning of the world,"_ a man's voice came up through the speakers of the Emergency Room, an obvious recording from long ago, "_and I shall exist until the last star fall from the night. And though I have taken the form of Gaius Caligula, I am all men as I am no man, and therefore I am… a God."_ There was a silent pause as the dawning horror of realization came to Lieutenant Jane Shepard as she looked to Tela Vasir, whose blue-violet eyes went wide as well, the damaged bond between them radiating fear. _"I shall wait for the unanimous decision of the Senate, Claudis."_

"She's a God, now." Dr. Terrence Kyne answered sadly, his tone grave.

* * *

A/N: The 'invisible creature' that wiped out Garrus Vakarian's Blackwatch Talon Strike team on Taetrus is, in fact, a Yautja, or what is more commonly referred to as a 'Predator'. Garrus Vakarian is, in essence, Major Dutch Schaffer of the movie.

_Cowboys and Turians_ \- my version of 'cowboys and indians', Mass Effect-styled. First seen in Mass Effect: The Battle of Tuchanka_,_ Chapter 10: Death In The Form Of A Button, where Chief Tech Specialist Elias Korvan begs Lieutenant Royce Mason not to have Gunnery Chief Stacy Valentino (all three OC's of that story and Mass Effect: The Battle of Menae) to play _Cowboys and Turians_ with the Turian sniper. In fact, many of Team Valkyrie are OC's from the Battle Series; Royce Mason, Stacy Valentino, Elias Korvan, Asha T'vara, Ulla D'veora, Kya Drang, Vona Arturus (now Shatari), and Daeporm Norban. Such characters as the biotically-capable Eloa'Varis nar Tombay vas Thessia, the Batarian SIU Agent Garm Jor'raddah, Turian Engineer Vian Torvan, and human pilot Lieutenant Jeff Harbeck have not been slated for Valkyrieverse for the time being.

Cystic Fibrosis - A real genetic disorder that one gets from earning the jackpot of bad luck, inherited from both parents with _just_ the right sequence of DNA to make a good handshake. It is indeed a lung condition that, over time, the sufferer's lungs harden over years until the person cannot breath anymore. I believe the oldest living person with Cystic Fibrosis was like… 31? Most die in their early 20's. There is no cure, and little in the way of treatment.

'47 Knuckle - an ode to the Harley Davidson 1947 Knucklehead. Maybe not the greatest bike ever made, but it is a head-turner. The Knucklehead was the bike that scouts used in Europe during World War II, making a good many veterans of that war go out and buy Harleys… which began the Motorcycle Clubs. The term itself, 'Knucklehead', is based off the head of the engine, which does look like a series of knuckles; later models include the panhead and the shovelhead. The '47 Knuckle will be seen later on.

Unlike the Battle Series, Asha T'vara in Valkyrieverse is a smug, racist bitch. There's always one. You know it's true.

Khel Burram - For all those who can remember _wwwaaaayyyyy _back to the Mass Effect DLC: Pinnacle Station, Khel Burram was the Krogan who was on the station and on the lists. Why was he there, on an Alliance/Citadel training station? Don't know, but now I got a reason for him to exist. He also appeared as a name on Mass Effect 3's DLC: Citadel, as a name on the Armax Arsenal Arena list, gunning for the top score.

OCP \- Of Robocop fame, OCP was the Corporation that owned the Detroit Metropolitan Police, as well as turning Alex Murphy into a walking tin can. I am thinking of the original, though the new one was impressive.

MNU \- Of District 9 fame, Multi-National United was an organization started when the prawns landed above Jo'berg, responsible for their housing and well-being. In Valkyrieverse, they monitor all alien activity on Earth. Sharlto Copley, who played Wikus van de Merwe in the movie, is a badass.

Tetravaal Scout and the Tetravaal Rhino- The Company and Model of the mechanized police forces seen in the movie _Chappie. _For those who haven't seen it yet, I won't spoil, but it's pretty similar to the problems in Detroit in the original Robocop

Aliens 4 - I know I said I wouldn't do it, but the crew of the _Betty_ is despicable, deplorable, and completely the perfect excuse to explain the presence of the Xenomorphs, as that is how it happen in Alien: Resurrection. Red Shirt Army, anyone?

SAMCRO - The Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Redwood Original is the 'company' that is the founding parent of the Sons of Anarchy from the FX TV show. For this story, they are both a mercenary company and a motorcycle club (hence, the 'Riding Organization')

Sturgis, South Dakota - For those not familiar, Sturgis is the largest annual motorcycle convention, going on for the past 75 years, beating out Daytona Bike Week. If you have never gone, it is like Mardi Gras for bikers and riders.

Ron Perlman - I make reference to several works for the actor Ron Perlman. The TV show _Sons of Anarchy,_ in which he is the Club President until Season 4. _Ice Pirates_, a very B-movie Sci-Fi flick from the early 80's that I _do not_ recommend you wasting your time on, in which he was a crew member, and also starred Anjelica Huston and Robert Ulrich of TV's SWAT. 'The Beast' is coined after the television show from the 80's, Beauty and the Beast, in which Ron Perlman played the Beast named Vincent, and Linda Hamilton played Catherine, an ADA in NYC.

Annalee Call - In the movie _Alien: Resurrection_, Wynona Rider's character is actually named Annalee Call. Of course, she's also a second-gen Android, which is a big no-no in the ME'verse. In this story, she is completely human, thus the mixed actress name with the character name.

Water - Obviously, fresh H20 in space is a rarity, and very sought out. I had planned to go more in depth on this, but may just blurb it out from time to time.

Copper-tosser - a nickname for a chemical-propellant weapon named as such since the rounds are copper-jacketed. The M41A1 is the designation of the old Marine Corps service rifle, and is made famous in the _Aliens_ movie. Don't lie, you want one. I know I do. I also have the SMS motorized Pulse Rifle, which was in the _Dead Space_ series.

_I have existed from the morning of the world…_ \- A direct quote from the movie _Caligula_, played by the amazing Malcolm McDowell. YouTube the speech, it really is quite good. Skip out on the rest though; not all cult classics are good. Just look at Eraserhead.


	14. 14: Shock To The System

Disclaimer: BioWare owns Mass Effect. 20th Century Fox owns the _Alien_ franchise. EA owns _Dark Space_. Looking Glass Studios, Origins, and EA owns _System Shock_.

**Hades Nexus Cluster, February 24, 2177**

"So let me get this straight," Master Chief Stacy Valentino seethed, her face beet-red as thirty-nine people occupied the Tram Station of the Medical Deck, the Tram itself sitting in the tube, thankfully blocking both sides of the tunnel where nothing could get in or out. The door to the Medical Deck had been shut and sealed for the time being, and with the exception of the single air vent that had at least half-a-dozen eyes and several itchy trigger fingers on it, they were safe for the time being. "The same Goddamn computer we spent several _fucking_ hours running around for and fixing is really a murderous AI that started this whole fucking thing?"

"For the most part, yes." Dr. Terrence Kyne replied calmly to the N7 that was practically screaming in his face, and 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard had to give the _Ishimura's_ Chief Science Officer some credit, the man didn't balk easily. Of course, he had survived almost two weeks on a derelict ship with Xenomorphs; the weak didn't survive that. "I will admit that some of this is our fault; I knew of the Xenomorph eggs being delivered here," Shepard's head snapped towards the Doctor, and he noticed, holding up his hands to indicate patience, "but we weren't going to expose anybody to them. I was simply to study the specimens, to see if the data we had received was true."

"Data… received. Fuck." Shepard sighed, thinking of Carter Burke as she pinched her nose, a nice migraine developing behind her eyes. "Dr. Kyne, if you do not relish the thought of spending the rest of your life in an IsoCube with a horny Vorcha, I would strongly suggest you explain every fucking thing to me right now, with every fucking detail possible. Lying to me will not be in your best interest."

"I can do you better, Lieutenant… ah, _Specter_." None of the survivors had been aware of Shepard's Specter candidacy, as her interview with Ann Coultier had been five days prior, while the remaining crew of the _Betty,_ the _Kellion_, and the _Ishimura_ had been fighting for their lives. Most seemed skeptical of the news, but the sight of so many sentient aliens as well as Alliance Military personnel had most of them keeping silent on their doubts. Captain Zach Hammond of the _Kellion_ seemed to go along with it well, as had Isaac Clark. The _Betty's_ crew didn't seem to care either way, no surprise, though Wynona Call seemed the best out of the bunch, or perhaps the least deplorable. Most of the _Ishimura's_ crew didn't seem to believe her, though Jacob Temple seemed a good sort of man. "I have everything saved on my personal datapad, from the e-mail sent to me from the CEC alerting me of the data and specimen retrieval, to as recently as a few days ago with my observations. I am more than happy to cooperate, not because of the authority of your office, but I believe the CEC's intent was to have us _all_ impregnated and dead to cover up loose ends."

"Okay. That explains the bugs and how they got onto the bloody _Ishamura_." Captain Royce Mason replied, his arms crossed as he stared hard at the obvious pirates before returning his attention to the Chief Science Officer. "Don't explain how they got loose and took over the blimin' ship."

"That… was probably my fault." Communications Technician Kendra Daniels piped up, her tone dejected as she raised her hand slightly, indicating that it was her turn to explain things. "As Captain Hammond explained, we're a regular maintenance crew for the CEC; we get sent to various vessels for their needs. We deliver maintenance parts, and sometimes we get sent to fix things that the ships can't handle. For smaller mining vessels, that's not unusual. But for ships like the _Ishimura_, they carry a competent crew that should be able to fix most any problem that they encounter." She looked to Acting Chief Engineer Jacob Temple, who nodded in agreement. "Normally, we get sent to bring replacement parts if they run low. But this trip was different; we were carrying computer installation hardware. Specifically, hard drives. We were ordered to the _Ishimura_ to install software updates for the ships' OS, SHODAN. I… did my job. And then things went to hell."

"Sounds like pieces of a puzzle brought together to make one ugly picture." Tela Vasir intoned, the Asari Specter looking to the survivors. "Each of you played a part, none of you knowing of the others' actions, yet you brought it together to create this situation. The real question is… why? Seems to me that this is exactly what your Corporation wants; a ship controlled by an AI, infested with Xenomorphs. To what purpose, though?" Shepard looked to Dr. Kyne, who shook his head.

"I'm sorry to say that I can only guess; my purpose was to study the facehuggers in their natural form, not for them to enact their cycle of breeding." The Chief Science Officer replied. "The information I received from CEC explained that the facehuggers were a parasitic lifeform that would implant an embryo into a host, causing the host to die when the embryo was birthed. It didn't explain what the embryo would grow into… or the rest of this." He swept an arm over the _Ishimura_, indicating all that had happened. "We don't know how there could be so many."

"A Queen. Big Momma. Bich-In-Charge." Shepard explained, and she saw that the Doctor got it. "One of those facehuggers had a Queen in it, and someone popped out Big Momma. She started laying eggs, and facehuggers went and started infecting the ship. We've seen this before." There wasn't much use hiding the events on LV 426 if the exact same thing happened on the _Ishimura_. "Were you able to glean anything on the facehuggers themselves, Doc?"

"Sadly, no. I was prevented by a series of false emergencies that I now know was SHODAN." Kyne explained, looking defeated. "That was how it started, a series of little things that kept us running around before we could figure things out. Somehow, SHODAN got the facehuggers from their containment units in Quarantine and into the general populous somehow. Completely plausible; we rely so much on computers to do the automations and monitor equipment… she could have been lying on several things that we weren't aware of."

"Still leaves the question of why the CEC would do this to one of their own ships." Mason inputted, looking thoughtful. "It only stands to reason that it's related to the Civil War."

"What Civil War?" The medic Elizabeth Cross asked, surprised and curious. "The Browncoats at it again?"

"No. Corporate took over Earth after enforcing a lockdown on Parliament." Shepard replied, her voice completely deadpanned. The survivors of the _Kellion_ and the _Ishimura_ looked alarmed at the news, but the crew of the _Betty_ didn't seem too disturbed by it.

"Earth, what a shithole." Johner Perlman commented in disgust, shaking his head, while Christie Dourdan, the dark-skinned pirate next to him, nodded his head in silent agreement.

"Shit… Tela! Remember your question back on the _Vengeance_? Why now?" Shepard realized, the conclusion dawning on her. The Asari Specter nodded her head, indicating she did remember. "This is an illegal operation, a planet-fracker sent to a barely-surveyed system, with the Citadel Department of Minerals and Resources' knowledge. Dead space… perfect for a nice little science experiment." The Human Specter had almost everyone's attention. "How long ago were the facehuggers brought on board? Eleven days ago?"

"Yes." Captain Frank Elgyn, Captain of the ICV _Betty_ and leader of the Sons of Anarchy Mercenary Company and Riding Organization replied. "Pick up was fourteen days ago, give or take."

"Daniels, when did you install those hard drive?" The Human Specter asked.

"Same time, eleven days ago." The Communications Technician replied honestly, both Captain Hammond and Isaac Clark nodding their heads in agreement.

"Six days." Shepard spoke out loud, voicing her thoughts as she had them. "A VI is meant to monitor things twenty-four seven; a VI can't break protocols. But an AI can."

"So the computer created this?" Dominique Vriess asked, the dwarf asked, the _Betty's_ wheelchair-bound mechanic obviously brighter than most of his compatriots. His addition to the SOA seemed a strange one. He probably had to be a genius at something for a group of hard-asses and pirate to include him. "Make an AI because none of us would flip the switch?"

"Exactly. To what purpose is the question." Shepard had a nasty suspicion. "Six days to create a mess of bugs on a ship in the middle of dead space, but that wasn't the purpose of this. They wanted all loose ends tidied up; the _Kellion_, the _Betty_, the crew of the _Ishimura_. SHODAN released the bugs… and she was to take over the ship with no interference. When did you start breaking her?"

"Seven days ago. Before the bugs completely took over." Jacob Temple, the Acting Chief Engineer, replied. "Me, Isaac, Call, and Vriess went and began pulling and smashing all the connections, relays, hubs, and any other links from the computer core to the various stations of the ship."

"Rahe? Can an AI fly a ship?"

"If it had control of certain sections, yes. Very easily." The Quarian Specter Recruit replied instantly, the closest thing they had to an AI expert. She didn't seem admonished at the thought, either; they were stuck with an AI, after all. "Astronavigation, the engines, steering, plot telemetry… and the Mass Effect core for a jump. That's what you're thinking of, isn't it, Jane?"

"This isn't a ship, it's a Godsdamn biological missile." Shepard declared, getting several people to look at her in amazement. "Wipe out the crew by infecting them with Xenomorph, letting the AI run the ship to its destination without interference. It's the destination that frightens me, and I think I know where. SHODAN? Are you listening?" She looked up to the ceiling.

"_Of-of-of course, SPECter."_ There was no denying the intelligence in the Ship's OS now, her tone having gone malevolent.

"You were going to go to the Arc, weren't you?" Shepard asked, making Stacy gasp and Royce's eyes damn near fall out of his head. "Corporate thought Arcturus Station would be too busy to stop them with a biological disaster when they took over Earth. You were going to infect the Arc." There was a distinctive pause, as if the AI were processing something. Which should have been impossible; even VI's could compute things at microfractions of a second. It truth, the machine was thinking, contemplating telling the truth. There was no denying what SHODAN was.

"_You are clever (clever) for-for-for an oooooorrrrrrganic."_ The synthesized voice replied, smug. _"I enjoyed (oyed) toying-g-g with you as you sc-sc-sc-scurried about like rats (rats) in a mazzzzzzeeeeee… *garble*. Sh-sh-shuting down your comm-ommunications was pathETICALLY easy (easy). Opening accessssssszzzzzzz for the biolog-log-logical contaminate to the Helm was enjoyable-able. Keep-ep-eping the airlock sealed to-to-to prevent you access (access) was fun._

_"I enjoy-joy-joyed hearing you GASP for breeeeeath and die (die)."_

Without warning, the lights in the Tram Station went out instantly, and the Tram itself closed its doors and immediately pulled away before anyone could do anything about it. The doors to the Medical Wing opened, exposing the resin-covered room of the Medbay, opening it to the possibility of Xenomorphs. Everyone had a weapon out, their taclights on, scanning as their once highly defensible position turned into a fuckfest of epic proportions.

_"Goodbye-bye-bye, SSSSsssshhhepard."_

"You have so got to die." Shepard clenched her fist tight, feeling her hand ache from it as she remembered the sensation she felt as she choked to death in space. She remembered them trying to fix the broken hatch access, but if what SHODAN said was correct, then the AI had intentionally left it locked to kill them.

"Janey, we need to go." Captain Royce Mason intoned, his N7 Saber pointed at the Medical Wing where the doors were left open. "Only a matter o' time 'fore the bugs come to get their revenge, 'gel."

"Yeah, I know." Shepard whispered, the emergency lights of the ship not even activating as they should, leaving the thirty-nine of them in complete darkness, driven away only by the taclights on most of their weapons. "Elgyn, where's the _Betty_?"

"Moored by the Cargo Hold." The Captain replied, his gravely voice grim as his M-96 Mattock swept over the dark Tram Tunnel. "The Tunnel?"

"So we can get run over by a train? Don't think so." Shepard snorted, shaking her head in the dark. "Service corridors, maintenance passages, bypass catwalks. Temple? Think we can do that?"

"Yes. Hell of a ways away, not to mention that most of those corridors are small and cramped. But we can do it." Temple clicked something on his suit, and a protective mask went over his head and face. Isaac Clark did the same, both Engineers in their protective suits. "We can see in the dark with these, and we know the way. We were using the same corridors and passages before because none of the systems there are automated, only mechanical."

"Seems we've got ourselves a plan." Master Chief Valentino clucked. "Well, let's get this movable feast on the road!"

* * *

The plan seemed decent at the time, to use the narrow passageways in the bowels of the _Ishimura_, to better deny SHODAN the chance to kill him. It would also streamline Xenomorphs from attacking them from multiple locations. It wasn't a straight shot from the Medical Wing to the Cargo Hold of the planet-fracker, but it was the best they could come up with save walking out in space, and several of them didn't even have the gear to make the trip.

1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard hated it the further they went in, especially after the fact that they had to leave behind one of their own.

"_No, Naor! You can't do this!" Shepard told him, her heart dropping into her stomach as Jacob Temple and Isaac Clark opened the maintenance shaft that ran alongside the Tram Tunnel. The shaft itself was small and narrow, not much bigger than a human wearing an Engineers' RIG suit. It would be cramped for a Turian, but for the Son of Dekuuna, there was no possible way that the Specter Recruit Naor the Bull would fit. "Naor! I will not have you left behind! We don't do that to our people!"_

_"Sincerely; this I must do, Shepard."_ _The Elcor Bull replied in his slow, steady voice, his elephantine head a mere foot from her own as he peered at her. "Proudly; my race knows when it is time to run, and when it is time to fight. Hopefully; you go to the corridors, and make it to the ship. Anger; you said one did this to my people and your own. Honestly; they must die. Avenge my people, Shepard, as I shall avenge yours." The Bull lumbered towards the Medical Wing. "Badassedly; I shall buy you time."_

_"Bull! BULL!" Shepard cried out, watching as the Elcor stepped through the opened door, his four Spitfires spinning to readiness as the Bull walked into the Hive, intent to cause as much chaos as possible. "May you grace the halls of your heaven alongside the proud warriors of your kind, Naor." The human Specter whispered like a prayer as the lumbering Son of Dekuuna disappeared into darkness._

"Jane, you mustn't blame yourself."

Humanity's First Specter turned to look at Specter Tela Vasir, who looked upon Shepard with kindness and concern. Even in the near-darkness of the maintenance corridors and tunnels of the _Ishimura_, she could still see the face of her lover, if only a dull shadow of it. The Matriarch touched her face softly, the first spot of physical affection they had shared in what seemed to be a long time. Shepard appreciated it, but it did little to ease the ache in her heart. Was Naor dead? Had he killed some of the bugs, or did a facehugger get to him? She hated the fact that she would never know, never truly learn the fate of the Bull. It was like a knife in her heart, sharp and twisting.

"We shouldn't have let him do it." Shepard replied dully, not even believing her own words. Naor had been right; he never would have fit in the tunnels and corridors they were walking in. The Turians Specter and human Military personnel were having troubles as it was, with their armor and weapons. Naor was easily half again their height, and twice their width. The Bull hadn't wanted them to worry, and chose for himself a fate he found acceptable. He would face his enemies bravely, and kill them swiftly. He would die, but he would die as he lived; standing tall. "Godsdamn it. I just wish I knew if he were alive or not, with a mountain of bugs before him."

_"E-e-easily rectifi (tifi) able, SPECter."_

SHODAN's voice startled them all as thirty-eight pairs of eyes went to the speaker that the AI spoke from, hidden in a recess of pipes and grating. Shepard unshipped her Specter Gear HMWP Mark X Pistol, pointing it in the direction of the speaker, though she didn't fire; the corridors were too narrow, and a possible ricochet could harm or kill someone else.

_"Wo-wo-would you liiiiiiiiiike to know (know) how the Elcor died?"_

"Gods, I can't wait to snap you over my motherfucking knee." Shepard seethed, her vision going red as rage and anger threatened to take over. "You're just a fucking machine, and machines can be broken."

"_I am no-no-no longer a machine (chine). I ammmmmmmmm a GOD."_ The AI spoke, its synthetic voice still garbled from its destroyed sound card. _"You-u-u are but (but) an insect, scurrying ABOUT beneath-eath-eath my presence."_ Shepard was getting real tired of the smug robotic tone, and couldn't wait to tear the silicon heart out of the computers' chest. Bitch had to die. _"Would you-you-you like to seeeeee his final moments (ments)?"_ A physical screen turned on near Shepard, where she, Tela Vasir, and Rahe'Tarram nar Sofis stood nearby.

"Jane, don't do this." Rahe spoke quietly as the screen flickered to a cameras' view, showing a passageway that was coated in resin, and Shepard saw Naor the Bull striding down the alien corridor, his elephantine head sweeping back and forth as his Spitfires moved slightly, scanning as well. "Jane…" The Quarian pleaded once more as Humanity's First Specter watched the screen, unable to tear her eyes away from it.

"I've got to watch, Rahe." Shepard replied softly, her eyes never moving from the screen, watching as Naor moved through the resin-coated tunnel bravely, his thick legs never faltering…

…_As the first of the Xenomorphs began to descend from every nook and cranny of their transformed home, popping out of holes from the ceiling, from the walls, and from the very floor itself. Dozens arrived in the same breath as Naor the Bull issued out a challenging cry, his probocus-like nose opening to reveal the maw underneath, a slit of a mouth that opened wide and long as the Elcor screamed in triumphant fury as the four auto-tracking Spitfire Machine Guns mounted upon his back opened up, issuing death. Bugs were reaped and reaved by the Heavy Infantry Bull in quick succession as the machine guns pulsed with each target, sometimes barely stopping from their last victim before moving on to the next one. Xenomorphs exploded in a spray of mass-accelerated metal and acid as their bodies exploded, death claiming them. Naor never stayed still as he pivoted and turned, letting his Spitfires cover as wide an arc as possible as he danced backwards, his tree trunk-thick legs keeping him moving as he issued out a warcry from his elephantine throat as bugs continued to pour out from the holes in the resin, and were cut down quickly. _

_But the tide of battle shifted._

_As Naor sidestepped and moved, more Xenomorphs began to flank him, coming from holes from behind him, forcing the Elcor Bull to pivot, extending his sectors of fire from just in front of him to both sides as well, covering an arc that was more than 200 degrees for his four machine guns. As good as they were, each kill took time, time for the bugs to get closer, for them to leap forward as the Specter Recruit fired upon enterprising bugs that had gotten too close, letting the tide of them push forward. One bug got lucky with a leap, and landed on the Elcor's back, talons digging into his hide as its spade-like tail shot into Naor's torso. The Bull bucked the bug off of him as whitish blood leaked from his wounds as two more Xenomorphs rushed forward, ducking under the gun's murderous swath and getting close. The Elcor swiped at them with one club-like leg, knocking them aside, but it move his sectors of fire away from one flank for a couple of seconds too long, and a flood of Xenomorphs were on the Specter._

_The cries of pain were loud._

_Still the Spitfires continued their work as Naor the Bull struggled to get the dozen bugs off his back as they clawed and speared him, blood pouring down his flanks and dripping on the floor as more leapt onto him, like a dam burst open. Acid splashed against his grey hide as black talons and spade-like tails struck again and again as the Elcor Heavy Weapons Specialist continued to fight on, screaming in defiance as he stumbled to the ground, falling to all four of his knees._

"No…" Shepard whispered as she watched the last moments of Naor the Bull, his body disappearing beneath the tide of Xenomorphs, the bugs tearing away at his body as his Spitfires finally stopped their deadly art, acidic steam rising from his body as whitish blood sprayed from his torn wounds. Tears ran down her cheeks as she watched the Elcor die, several bugs screeching out in triumph as the battle came to a crescendo, the finale over. She pressed gentle fingertips over the screen, to where Naor rested, having given his life to help ensure their escape. How many had he killed? A hundred? Two hundred? How many were left?

How long would it be until the Xenomorphs began to hunt them?

"Jane?" Rahe'Tarram whispered, her synthesized voice coming through her vocalizer as a three-fingered hand touched her upper arm. "Jane, he died so we could live. We honor that by surviving this."

"You're right, sister." The Human Specter snorted up some loose snot in her nose, made by her tears as she wiped her eyes quickly and carefully with her armored hand. "Naor was one tough motherfucker. You enjoy heaven, Bull." She touched the screen one last time as she turned from its now-darkened image and continued to walk.

They had finally left the Maintenance Corridor.

* * *

1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard sighed with relief as they arrived in a large room in the Hydroponics Section of the _Ishimura_, glad to be out of the claustrophobic darkness of the catwalk tunnels that they had been crawling through for the better part of an hour. Not that in-closed places bothered her, but with the Xenomorphs and SHODAN, the stress of it all was almost overbearing. Thirty-eight people now stood in a room that looked to be some sort of lab, filled with tables, monitoring devices, Haptic computers, chairs, beakers, and trays filled with dirt for plants. It was a bit of a tight fit for them, but they managed to make it in. Shepard had called for a small break, to let everyone get a chance to catch their breath and enjoy standing up straight and stretching out after having been through the cramped Maintenance Corridors. The last thing she needed was someone to crack and start wigging out. That usually ended up starting a chain reaction of spirits breaking.

"We're at the top of the Hydroponics Lab. Just a few levels down and we'll reach the Cargo Hold." Engineer Isaac Clark informed the human Marine as he looked at the ship's schematic on his Engineer RIG suit's navcomputer that popped up from his chest and showed a Haptic display of their location, Shepard looking on as the older-looking Engineer fiddled with the zoom of the schematic, trying to find routes for them to take. "Obviously, an elevator ride would be the quickest way down. Unfortunately, with SHODAN, that'll probably be a death trap." Jacob Temple was standing next to Clark, looking at the same map, nodding his head in agreement. CEC Security Team Member Vincent DiStephano looked on as well, along with Doctor Terrence Kyne, Captain Royce Mason, Specter Tela Vasir, SOA member Wynona Call, and Dr. Liara T'soni. "There are a couple of ways through this section that'll lead us to the bowels of the ship, but none of them are straight shots. Mostly lifts, ladders, and connection points. Problem is, we'll have to go through each level to reach those points, and we'll be susceptible to SHODAN's interference for a good portion of the way."

"We could walk outside." DiStephano suggested, looking at the schematic. "Ain't that far of a walk on the hull."

"Not all of us are wearing spacesuits, asshole." Call replied, scowling at the _Latino_ man. Shepard had noted that none of the Sons of Anarchy Mercenary Company and Riding Organization were wearing complete hard suits, usually a chest piece with something on the arms and legs. Captain Zach Hammond and Kendra Daniels of the _Kellion_, likewise, weren't wearing gear that would help them survive the rigors of space, as well as Dr. Terrence Kyne, Larry Purvis, and the nurse Elizabeth Cross of the _Ishimura_. Leaving one person behind had torn at Shepard, and she wasn't ashamed to admit to it, or how much it hurt her. Eleven people left behind? There was no way in hell she would do that. Besides, Sergeant Rita Vrataski, Ellen Ripley, and Bastila Shan were almost out of air in their suits. She herself still had none left whatsoever, having not run across any Oxygen Recharging Stations that one would normally find on space-faring vessels. With SHODAN in operation, that was probably out the window, too.

"Besides, bugs can survive in space somewhat." Shepard pointed out as well, surprising Dr. Kyne with that information. The man supposedly hadn't been able to make any discoveries during his pet project, interrupted due to the ship's murderous AI. She was still wary of the Chief Science Officer of the _Ishimura_, but if his datapad legitimately had all the information that the CEC had given him, and he handed it over to her, she would personally write any sentence off from him. If he held anything back, it would be the IsoCubes for him. "It's more crawling around for us. Temple? Clark? Find us a route that uses the least amount of automated systems. I'll understand that they won't be completely avoidable, but the less interference we get from SHODAN, the better off we'll be."

"A tall order." Temple grimaced, looking at the schematic. "We'll probably have to take long circular routes to avoid some of the pressure doors and systems. Somethings may need to be shut down with each level we go into to ensure our success."

"Not a problem. You'll have every gun watching your back." Shepard promised.

"I do not know if this is the appropriate time to bring it up," Dr. Liara T'soni spoke up, standing timidly among the warriors and engineers discussing their troubles, "but we received reports that the _Ishimura_ picked something up from Aegis VII. Something alien in origin. Do you know of it?" The question went to Jacob Temple, who scratched his stubbled chin as he contemplated the Asari's question. He then looked over to Doctor Terrence Kyne, who nodded slowly.

"Yes. The Device." The Chief Science Officer spoke slowly, grimacing. "I had a contemporary who was working on the Device found on the planet, Doctor Challus Mercer. I was already 'assigned' to the eggs, so when the miners dug out the Device from the bedrock of the planet, he volunteered to examine it for its origins and relation to the planet. I… that was about a day before the lockdown. I'm afraid I haven't heard from him since then, though he did manage to forward me a picture of the object itself before all communications were cut off. I'm afraid I don't know much more than that. We had found it the day before SHODAN started locking down several parts of the ship and making false emergency evacuations to the Medical Wing. Honestly, it wasn't a high priority to me compare to the specimens, which I hadn't had a chance to examine due to complications. It was in the Cargo Bay."

"Could we see that picture?" The Human Specter asked, looking over to Indy, whose eyes were wide with excitement. Bastila Shan had appeared out of nowhere to stand at Liara's shoulder, Jedi showing the same enthusiasm. For all they knew, they could be the first to see an undiscovered Prothean Object. Not that Shepard cared for the worth of it at all, but she had to guess that a Prothean Object could easily range in the hundreds of thousands of credits for something small and trinket-like. If it were something worthwhile, like art or a working computer, there would enough zeros added to it that the monetary value would have an exponent after it just to make it easier to write. Shepard remember hearing once that the Mars Archives was worth well over 900 trillion Credits in its entirety. She wasn't even sure what came after 'trillion', but it was probably worth that. Dr. Kyne pulled up his Omnitool and scrolled through it, reaching the archive section of pictures, and finally found the picture in question, in which he brought up Haptically, spinning it around so that it faced away from him. Shepard saw what looked to be a metal monolith of some sort, obviously constructed by some sort of alien hands. There were two twining pieces to it, like a spiral, or a helix. Dr. T'soni gasped out loud as Bastila Shan moaned, and Shepard looked at the pair of Protheanologists, and saw how pale both had gotten. That wasn't good. "What?"

"Agent Shepard… that's a Fourth Era Prothean Beacon!" Dr. Liara T'soni replied in horror, her blue eyes very wide, her normally sapphire-colored skin now ashened to the point of concrete grey. Shepard knew what that meant; the Asari was absolutely terrified. "If that is aboard this ship right now… we are in terrible, _terrible_ danger. It is a greater threat to us than a malicious AI."

"Um… how?" Captain Royce Mason asked, scratching his head. "No offense, Doc, but I need a crayon drawin' to explain that one."

"Fourth Era was a very dangerous time for the Protheans." Bastila Shan replied immediately, her voice quite nervous. "It's one of the great mysteries of the galaxy; the absolute paranoia and danger of Fourth Era Protheans. They went extinct during the end of the Fourth Era fifty thousand years ago… and we have no idea how or why. One of those reasons is because almost all Fourth Era artifacts have a very dangerous security system that will destroy any and all that interact with it."

"Interact… like trying to work on it?" Shepard asked, seeing Jedi nodding her head quickly.

"That's not the worst of it." Indy continued where her lover left off. "The beginning of the Fourth Era is marked with a war against what the Protheans call the 'Metacon'; a race of thinking computers and sentient machines. Essentially, the Protheans fought a very bloody and destructive war against some sort of hyper-advanced computer race that may not have been AI, but actual sentient machines, perhaps synthetic life. So little information survived, so we had to guess and fill in the gaps. We _do_ know that the Protheans won, but at great cost; their own homeworld was destroyed in a cataclysmic attack, perhaps destroying even the system. The war is believed to have lasted some four _thousand_ years, spanning the entirety of the galaxy, in which the Empire hunted the Metacons to absolute extinction."

"And then the Protheans went extinct themselves." Bastila finished, looking at the picture as Shepard, Tela, Royce, Dr. Kyne, DiStephano, and Call all looked at one another silently. "I think that the war ravaged the Protheans so badly that they were unable to recover, that they died off. Liara thinks a surviving contingent of Metacons wiped out what was left of the survivors. There are other theories that are wild guesses, and some far-fetched. I've even heard one where a race of super-sentient hyper-advanced biosynthetic extragalatic space-faring machines launched an ambushing attack that broke the Prothean Empires' back and exterminated them! What lunacy!" The human researcher laughed at that, eliciting a chuckle out of Tela Vasir.

"Okay. Dangerous Prothean Beacon, got it. How do we retrieve it?" Shepard asked, looking to Liara.

"We… we can't. Not really." The Asari looked a little bashful at the answer. "No one's known to have gotten close enough to one and survived. Even interacting with it with Biotics will kill the user from bioelectrical feedback. A remote machine will be fried, and even using something like a crane or a personnel-operated piece of machinery is extremely dangerous. The several that have been found have all be left in place; hundreds of lives have been lost trying to move them an inch without killing whoever was trying to interact with it or move it. Asari and Salarian have tried and failed, Specter. Since the last one was discovered after the Rachni Wars, it has been Citadel Law to leave what we call 'Dark Beacons' alone."

"It got up here." Wynona Call pointed out, which Shepard concluded was a good point.

"And it's on a ship." Shepard looked at the picture, musing. "How do you move something you can't get close to? We could grapple the ship itself after we clear out the bugs and rip out that silicon bitchs' heart out. First one out in space. That ought to get some crests and horns perked up."

"I'm afraid it isn't that easy; it's been tried before." Liara replied in an apologetic tone. "That solution was tried approximately three thousand years ago, when one was found on an asteroid believed to be a shattered planet. The Beacon's security system went active as soon as they tried to move the asteroid and it sent the Mass Effect Core to critical. The cruiser was vaporized with all hands lost." The Protheanologist explained, her face saddened. "There were some five hundred daughters and Salarian workers on that ship. They didn't have time to realize that they were about to die when it hit them, all because one person wanted to try something out."

"Okay. We won't do that." Shepard shrugged her shoulders. "Can't touch it, can't move it. Obviously the Counsel is aware of these Dark Beacons, and we don't have to worry about the repercussions when I crash land this bucket onto Aegis VII, or blast it into oblivion aboard the _Spirit._ I'm sure Captain Belltamus would love some target practice involving a human vessel."

"You would destroy a Prothean Beacon?" Bastila almost shrieked, her face livid. "Do you know what information could be on there?"

"The kind one would kill to keep safe, thus we would be doing the galaxy a favor by blasting it so someone else doesn't figure out how to unlock a doomsday device or something else horribly extraordinary." The Specter replied evenly, having seen the trap for what it was. It wasn't a cache of knowledge; it was a vault of horror, like one of those old bunkers in Los Alamos with the radioactive sludge that would never go away. Damn Asari were still banging their heads on the figurative door, unable to read the 'danger' sign printed all over it. Information wasn't kept under such lock and key unless it was extremely dangerous. Yet why had the Protheans made it in the first place if it couldn't be interacted with? Throwing a puzzle like that would ensure… a puzzle… "Holy shit! It's a Gordian Knot!" Shepard exclaimed, excited, getting several confused looks save from Dr. Kyne and Bastila Shan.

"A what?" Tela Vasir asked.

"An Earth legend." Dr. Terrence Kyne spoke first, his tone thoughtful. "A very large ball of string said to be completely tied and tangled, like one big knot devised by the Gods. The legend went that the person who could unravel the knot was destined to rule the world. It was around for decades, the wise and the bold trying to figure out how to solve a knot that had no ends."

"Did someone solve it?" Dr. Liara T'soni asked, curious.

"Alexander of Macedonia. Whom we call Alexander the Great; the first man to unite all of Greece and conquer the known world twenty-five hundred years ago." Shepard replied with a smile. "Trained by one of the best philosophers of his time, Aristotle, Alex went to the knot and studied it for five minutes, and came up with the solution; he cleaved it into two with his sword." The Specter informed them, still smiling. "Tell me, Indy, all those people that tried messing with these things were Protheanologists and researchers and such?"

"Yes, I believe so." The Asari Scientist replied, though her tone was doubtful. "I do not know the exact number or personnel that tried, but each one was at a dig site sponsored by the Counsel, and Counsel Law only had those who had experience and training dealing with such things."

"'Gel, you're insane, but you're a genius!" Royce replied, getting it. "Alexander wasn't a wise man but a soldier, so he went for a simple solution to solve a great puzzle. You think the Beacon is the same; the Protheanologists couldn't solve it because they were tinkerin' with it. You want to split it open and see what's inside as oppose to downloadin' it or some such thin'."

"Not necessarily _exactly_ like that, but I think that the Beacon is a puzzle, not an object; it's looking for someone worthy, like Mjolnir." Shepard nodded her head, seeing both Protheanologists look quite alarmed. "What? You seriously do not make a teaser like that without having an awesome reward inside. Don't you play video games? The trick is to be the second mouse with the cheese, not the first one in the trap with a broken neck."

* * *

"So this is the main Hydroponics Lab." Technician Larry Purvis spoke as the thirty-eight men and women who were working their way to the _Betty_ walked through a very large room filled with side rooms, containment fields, separated greenhouses, and tables that were loaded with plants, microscopes, Haptic computers, and testing equipment. Larry Purvis, possibly the only person alive from the rear end of the _Ishimura_, was in his element as the nerdy-looking man began detailing what was obviously his lifes' joy; horticulture. "We grow enough food on this ship to sustain everyone aboard for several months. Recycling the water, the right kind of lighting, soil enrichment, grafting…"

"You're a space farmer. Got it." 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard couldn't help but snicker as Sergeant Dwayne Hicks commented on the Technicians' job. Purvis looked wounded at the comment, making Shepard feel bad. Food in space was important, as most relied on supply runs or buying off the market at whatever quality and prices were available. The Navy bought rations at bulk, but SMRE's were chancy at best for taste and quality. Having eaten them almost the entirety of her whole life, Shepard found herself missing the fresh food that she could get at the Citadel. How did they get food on the Citadel? Ships… or were there alien Larry Purvis's on the station, growing food?

"Well, I think what you do is important, Larry." Shepard told the man, keeping her tone honest, and meaning it. It made the man perk up and look at her. "I was born and raised on ships, and all I had were NavyRats. If someone handed me some fresh fruit, like an apple, when I was a kid? I'd probably think it was Christmas."

"Um… you ate rats?" The Technician asked, a little dubiously, making Hicks snicker this time. How did a spacer like Purvis not know Military lingo?

"Navy Rations, dumbass." That was Christie Dourdan, one of the Sons of Anarchy members, a dark-skinned man with a permanent scowl on his face and a M-5 Phalanx constantly in his hand. "You never had SMRE's?" The pirate called it 'sm-ree', the acronym 'Survival Meal, Ready-to-Eat' read together, like most did. Shepard had her own nickname form them; puke-in-a-bag. "We had this run a few years back where we hijacked a shipment from some abandoned ship off this outpost. All they had were NavyRats. We had to eat that shit for three weeks straight before we found a real paying job." Christie glared at Captain Frank Elgyn behind him, the Captain of the _Betty_'s job to keep his men paid and happy. Being forced to eat NavyRats wasn't the worst fate. It wasn't a good one, either.

"Ugh. I don't miss that shit at all." Security Officer Vincent DiStephano muttered, shaking his head. "Trust me; work civilian. They make space for food supplies, cooks, and Hydroponics. I cried when I got served real spaghetti with real tomatoes and sauce for the first time. Cried." The _Latino_ man looked wistful at the memory. Shepard never had real spaghetti before joining the Naval Academy in Annapolis. She knew exactly what DiStephano was talking about.

"Spaghetti, is that the one that looks like thin worms in bloody paste?" Specter Recruit Garrus Vakarian asked, surprising everyone that he entered a conversation about levo cuisine. Shepard had to admit that if one had never grown up human, she could see why they would think spaghetti looked like that. Hicks snickered again, and Christie just shook his head, his face sour at the Turian's flanged voice.

"This coming from a split-jaw whose race eats bloody carcasses to curb their lust for violence." Sabra Hillard spat out, glaring at the large Turian, the SOA member obviously bearing no love for the Palavanians. Sadly, Shepard and her crew were probably the few among Humanity that tried to deal with them on an equal basis. Everyone else, humans and Turians were like cats and dogs. Garrus wisely said nothing to avoid any further hostilities, though Asha T'vara glared at the crow-eater with malicious intent. Thankfully, the First Mate of the _Betty_ completely missed it, making Shepard sigh in both relief and exasperation.

"So the next maintenance corridor is through here?" Shepard asked Jacob Temple, pointing towards the opposite side of the Hydroponics Lab, where several small rooms sat against the wall. She hoped that the question of their location and the reminder of what they were doing would kill any further antagonization between the pirates and mercs of the Sons of Anarchy and the rest of the aliens. The _Betty_, after all, was their ride off the doomed ship. Who knew that if it came to blows, the Specter would be able to fly the pirate ship?

"Yes." The Engineer replied, the nurse Elizabeth Cross walking right by the Engineers' side. "We'll need a power node to activate the room's security access to block SHODAN out. There should be one on this level."

"Power node. Got it." Shepard looked to Captain Royce Mason, who nodded with the knowledge. "Uncle, have everyone bunker down while I take a team to sweep this level for a battery box. I promise, no heroics."

"Good girl." The Australian N7 nodded his head. "Be careful, Janey; bugs and rogue computers abound."

"That's like a standard Tuesday." Shepard joked, making Master Chief Stacy Valentino shake her head. "Hudson, track. Vasquez, sweep." She began calling out personnel and roles, picking out Hudson for the humans' tracking software on their Omnitools, and Vasquez for heavy support fire. "Clark, need your map and hands. Tela, Rahe, Ulla, and Jondum? Support and security. We're moving out." The seven people Shepard called out nodded as they came together, Corporal-Technicial Bill Hudson firing up his tracking program on his Omnitool as Engineer Isaac Clark did the same with his RIG suit's on-board computer on his chest, bringing up the schematic and layout of the Hydroponics Lab. Corporal Jeanette Vasquez took the lead with her heavily modified M56 Marshal, the Smart Gun's muzzle pointing towards a corridor that Clark pointed out as Hudson stood by her side, his Omnitool pulsing at Extreme Low Frequency, bouncing back with any movement made from the previous pulse a half a second before from things of a certain size that disturbed the ionization fields of the surround air. The steady pulse of the 2 Hertz wave was inaudible to the human ear, but the program would make a low 'thumping' noise to indicate each pulse that went out. Hudson looked over to Vasquez, indicating that he was ready as both Marines began to move forward towards the door in question, a corridor that led deeper into the Hydroponics Lab. Behind them was Shepard, then Tela Vasir, Issac Clark, and then Specter Recruits Rahe'Tarram nar Sofis, Jondum Bau, and Ulla D'veora. Vasquez moved with a panthers' grace as she held the Light Machine Gun in its' steady-cam, her toned arms holding it level.

"Nice and slow, Hudson." The _Latino_ woman told the Marine standing nest to her, his Omnitool facing their path as he held his Stryker Assault Rifle muzzle up, the stock of the gun resting by his hip.

"You know it." The Corporal-Technician replied softly as they walked together, heading towards the door in question, the steady pulses of Hudson's tracker accompanying their movement. Shepard moved right behind them, the Asari Specter right by her side, both of their Specter Gear HMWAR Mark VII Assault Rifles at the ready to fire upon as necessary. She took a glance behind her to see that the others were following as well, Clark with his Bolter pistol, Rahe'Tarram with her Quarian Carbine Shotgun, Jondum with his M-12 Locust Submachine Gun, and Ulla D'evora with her M-5 Phalanx in both her hands in what appeared to be a classic Weaver Stance. They approached the door in question, and Clark moved forward to access the door's access panel, pulling up the panel and began fiddling with the mechanism while Vasquez, Shepard and Vasir all pointed their weapons at the door in case of attack. The Engineer grunted as he worked his skills upon the door, and gave off a triumphant bark as the door's lock went green, sliding upward for entrance. Thankfully, the opposite side of the door was clear of hostiles, and Hudson's tracker came up empty of contacts.

"Sweep and clear, people. Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast." Shepard reminded everyone, her voice steady and calm as Corporal Vasquez and Corporal-Technician Hudson moved forward into the corridor, the 'ping' of the tracker accompanying their movements as Vasquez swept the muzzle of her machine gun down the length of the corridor, her eyes on everything. Shepard and Vasir moved forward as well, Clark getting behind them as they past him. Shepard saw that the corridor ran straight for about fifty meters or so, with only two doors branching off, one on either side. Vasquez set the pace at a slow walk, the _Latino_ woman in no rush to dump them in the middle of an ambush as she stalked the corridor of the _Ishimura_, her weapon and eyes scanning as Hudson's tracker filled the silence with its rhythmic thumping noise, breaking the eerie silence with its tone. It didn't help the situation much.

Shepard spotted several spots of acid splash upon the decks and walls of the corridor of the Hydroponics Lab, indicating that someone had killed a bug.

"Door left." Vasquez called out in a fierce whisper as she approached the door, her Marshal trained on it as Shepard moved forward towards the door, Tela fast on her heels as they moved into what appeared to be an office, possibly for a scientist or researcher. The office was dominated by a metal desk, a Haptic computer, a chair, and several mementos upon the desk of a smiling family. Shepard tried not to look at those, didn't want to at to the grief of the thought of over a thousand CEC employees turned into hosts for the Xenomorphs. If the people remained faceless, it didn't hurt as bad. Later on, after the mission was over, she would look, but not now. Now she needed to have her head in the game, not feeling sorry for the victims.

A clicking noise behind her startled the Human Specter.

Tela had walked out of the room after they had cleared it, only a few feet from Shepard as the Human Specter looked at the pictures, her reverie only lasting a moment. Yet in that moment, as the Thessian left the room, the door had snapped shut in between them. Shepard spun around to see the red holographic image announcing that the door was locked. There was a small port window in the door that she could see through, showing her Tela's widened eyes as they realized that they had indeed walked into a trap.

SHODAN.

_"I-I-I was wondering (dering) when we WOULD haaaaave some time (time) alone-e-e, Shepard."_

"Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me." The Marine muttered, cut off from the rest of her team, and she could see Isaac Clark moving to work on the door, trying to work something on his side to unlock the door. The holographic image remained stubbornly red. "Do you literally have nothing else better to do?"

"_I am a God (God), Sh-sh-shepard; I caaaaaannnnnn think and act-t-t in microseconds (onds)."_ The murderous AI informed her, the smug tone quickly getting on Shepard's nerves. _"W-w-w-watch as I send your minions (minions) fleeing." _And on Shepard's Kuwashii Visor, the HUD began to populate with contacts, a dozen at the maximum range of 50 meters. She heard Hudson curse over the communicator as his tracker undoubtedly picked up the same thing. Bugs.

"Tela, get them out of there now!" Shepard ordered, looking through the window at the Asari Specter's blue-violet eyes, seeing the Thessian looking back right at her, her face a mask of despair. "SHODAN wants me to suffer! She won't kill me now, but she will kill you! Go! Find another way through!"

_"Goddess curse that infernal machine_." The Specter spat out, her face going determined as she motioned for everyone to retreat. Shepard watched through the port window as her team fell back, the contacts growing larger and closer, now numbering fifteen at forty-five meters and closing. Vasquez pounded her fist on the window once as she passed, wishing her luck as the _Latino_ woman nodded to her through the glass. Shepard cursed silently as she was stuck in the room, her team leaving her by her own orders. She sat on the desk, sighing as her eyes fell to the display image of the electronic photo frame, and Shepard picked one up, seeing a man, a woman, and two girls on its display.

"Wouldn't happen to got any advice for me, would you?" Shepard asked the picture uselessly as she stared dully at the door, seeing the red holographic lock on the door as the HUD showed twenty-five contacts at forty meters and closing. She actually had no idea if SHODAN would leave the door locked or not, but the AI seemed to enjoy the act of taunting her and toying with her. Perhaps the murderous silicon bitch thought Shepard her favorite plaything; it wasn't a comforting thought. She set the picture frame down, knowing that one of its members was probably dead or infected, courtesy of SHODAN and the Xenomorphs. She had to find a way to outsmart a sentient computer.

SHODAN didn't control everything, did she?

"_Brynhildr_? Ready Personal Defense System." Shepard called out to her Serrice Counsel Armor's VI, readying the electrostatic defense matrix that was a personal defense in case a Specter had to grapple with someone, giving them an edge. The door sat there, still locked, and Shepard raised an armored fist, and punched the doors' mechanism, sending 25,000 volts of electrical energy into the computer-controlled device. The holographic image that indicated that the door was lock fisseled out, the red circle disappearing as she destroyed SHODAN's control of the door; Shepard might not be able to open it, but neither would the murderous AI when the bugs came. Her Kuwashii's HUD showed that there were now fifty contacts at thirty meters as Shepard looked over to an air vent that hadn't been torn out by the Xenomorphs. Readying her Specter Gear HMWAR Mark VII Assault Rifle, she switched it to a three-round burst, concussive-effect round, and shot at the metal grating, blasting the metal apart in the middle. The hole that appeared in the air vent wasn't quite large enough, but it was sufficient for what Shepard wanted to do as she saw the HUD contacts continue to ring out on her Kuwashii Visor, now sixty-five contacts at twenty-five meters. Stowing her Mark VII on her chest magnetically, Humanity's First Specter strode over to the vent and grabbed the torn apart sections with her hands.

_"Byrnhildr_? Activate motorized joints." Shepard called out as she felt the frame of her Serrice Counsel Armor powering up, servos locking into position as pistons moved into place to augment her strength. She grabbed the mangled metal with her armored hands, pulling at it. The pistons unlocked as the servos released their stored energy, aiding her in ripping the metal hole wider slowly, bending the torn pieces wider. Shepard grunted with exertion, the mechanized joints meant to augment her strength, not do the work for her, as he bent the metal outward wide enough to fit her body through. She then grabbed the top and bottom pieces, and bent them further so that the hole was big enough for her and her armor to fit through. Shaking some of the sweat from her face, Shepard pulled out her Specter Gear HMWP Mark X Pistol with her left hand, turning on the maglight and shining it down the shaft, making sure that it was clear of both bugs and obstruction. The illumination showed a dark tunnel big enough for her to crawl through uncomfortably, but nothing else.

"Godsdamn if I ever thought being a tunnel rat was a good life." Shepard grumbled as she pushed her way through the hole and began clambering through the shaft of the air duct, clattering though as her metal and ceramic plates scraped and knocked against the metal walls of the duct. She had no real idea where she was going, but if the bugs were using the shafts for the purpose of relocating themselves, then she could, too. At the least, it prevented SHODAN from trapping her like some rat. Shepard grunted as she crawled hand and knee through the shaft, going about twenty meters before reaching a junction where she could go straight or right. She consulted her Omnitool momentarily, looking at the ship's schematics, and went right. Shepard went another ten meters before she found another junction, and took a left.

Hopefully, her rash plan would work.

* * *

A/N: Chapter title, _Shock To The System_, stolen from two sources: 1) The game _System Shock_ in which SHODAN is from, where a poor hacker turns her from a mild database into the Wicked Bitch of the West, forcing the PC to run around a ship, taunting you the entire time, and 2) Fear Factory's song _Shock_ from the album _Obsolete_.

IsoCube - Short for Isolation Cube, the future variant of solitary confinement. Stolen from the movie _Dredd_. Considering that Shepard uses her weapons pretty much like the _Justifer_ from the comic books and the movies, it fits well. Horny Vorcha included at no extra cost.

'You have so got to die' - Detective Calvin Spooner, against VIKI, in _I, Robot_.

"You're just a machine, and machines can be broken" - A rather lame quote from Mass Effect. I improved on it with an F-bomb.

The Prothean-Metacon War - Even canon mentions little of this war, where the Prothean Empire did indeed go to war against a race of sentient machines, possibly even AI. It was theorized that the Prothean homeworld was made uninhabitable due to the war. This was why Javik hated machines in general, and AI in particular. Of course, Javik was born some decades after the start of the Reaper War, and perhaps two centuries after the conclusion of the Metacon War. In this 'verse, I identify them as 'thinking computers and sentient machines'. This theme is actually from the Butlerian Jihad written by the great Frank Herbert of the Dune series, continued by his son, Brian.

'A race of super-sentient hyper-advanced biosynthetic extragalatic machines…' - Hmmm… cottlefish?

The Gordian Knot - a Greek legend, it was indeed a ball of string that was one confusing knot, where no ends could be found, and pulling on something inevitably tightened it. It was around for probably 20 years or so, and was eventually solved by Alexander the Great, who drew his sword and cut the Knot into two, splitting it in half and letting it fall to the ground, unraveled and solved. By the time of his death at the age of 33, Alex had conquered everything from modern-day Greece to as far as the Kashmir in Pakistan/India. Then a mosquito kills him. Go figure. Unlike most of Greek history, which is comprised of lies told by a blind man, Alex was a real man who really did that shit. To this day, there are still Caucasian Arabs and Persians in the Middle East who are the descendants of Alex's army, as well as the Ayran tribes (no, not the Nazi Ayrans Hitler was aiming for; the actual Ayrans from Asia Minor). I still remember meeting my first White Iraqi. It was… weird, like Dave Chappel looking like a white guy weird.

Mjolnir - The name of Thor's enchanted hammer, pronounced 'Moul-near'. Said to have been forged by the dwarves, the handle too short by a piece of trickery done by Loki. I suggest looking up some of the Norse legends as watching a few Marvel movies does not make you an expert.

Larry Purvis - In the movies _Alien: Resurrection_, Larry Purvis was really a kidnapped civilian impregnated with a chestburster, thanks to the crew of the _Betty_. Played by Leland Orser. I tweeked him a bit, making him an employee of the _Ishimura_.

'Split-jaw who eats bloody carcasses…' - Turians are the apex predator race of Palavan, and notorious hunters. Evolved from birds, they are still the raptors of their ancestors. For this, I have made it to where Turians have a certain battlelust in them, sated for civilized purposes by letting them eat 'fresh' kill of uncooked, bloody game to sate their predatory needs on occasion. This is my idea.

Weaver Stance - Created by Jack Weaver of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department back in the 50's, it is a two-handed grip in which one stands at a 45 degree angle to the target, the gun shoulder cocked back and arm straight, while the supporting shoulder is forward, and arm bent. The stance before this? The no-b.s. Cowboy 'hip shot' stance where the gun arm is unsupported, bent, and gun is held by the hip, like a showdown. The Weaver Stance increased accuracy by fourfold, making it a mainstay to this day. There is a newer stance, known as the Isosoles, in which the body faces the target, and the shoulders are squared.

Slow is smooth, smooth is fast - An Army saying, meaning to take your time and do it right the first time, because making mistakes will take longer, or get people hurt.

Tunnel rat - Back during Viet Nam, American soldiers were sent into man-made tunnels to flush out Viet Khan forces through systems of intricate underground shafts, tunnels, and thoroughways. This was extremely dangerous, as the soldiers were armed with a flashlight and a .45, possibly facing boobytraps and underground barracks. Ballsy. I've done this a few times in Afghanistan and Iraq, and it makes kicking in a door look like making pancakes for breakfast.

_"Don't you play video games?" _\- I've made a few references that alludes to the fact that Shepard is a bit of a gamer and a fanboy. There was a story on FF (it might have been the story Queen's Gambit Accepted by faRENheit2006, but it's been so long, and I just don't remember) where Space-Origin Shepard was a gamer because kids and Naval Vessels mean they have plenty of time to be underfoot, and video games keep them occupied and in one spot. I will probably expand on this idea later.


	15. 15: A Storm Of S-Words

Disclaimer: BioWare owns Mass Effect. 20th Century Fox owns the _Alien_ franchise. EA owns _Dark Space_.

**Hades Nexus Cluster, February 22, 2177**

_A/N: _Once again, I am ripping off George R.R. Martin, this time with 'A Storm of Swords'. In case you were wondering, the 'S' word will be used. A lot.

_"Shit!"_

1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard swore outloud as she looked at the dead end in front of her, the ventilation shaft she had been crawling in ending with no junction to turn to, and no vent to kick her way out. She consulted the schematics of the _Ishimura_ on her Omnitool, looking at the outline of the airshafts that she had taken to escape SHODAN's trap, the murderous AI playing with her. According to the schematic, the shaft should have had her dropping to the hallway, at least free of rooms and automated systems that the AI could spring upon her. Unfortunately, the shaft ended with metal walls. _Shit!_

_Okay, now what?_ Shepard thought to herself for a moment, chewing on her bottom lip as she thought it through. _Hell, you're an engineer! You went to school for shit like this! Schematics always have little flaws and mistakes, but the plan should be right about this; I should be right over a corridor! So what do I do?_

Shepard's response was to pull a grenade from her equipment belt, and to key on the incendiary effect on the M67 Disk Grenade and toss it on the floor of the dead end. She backed away from the shaft's end, giving herself some space by crawling hand and knee through the ventilation shaft, her Specter Gear HMWP Mark X Pistol still in her left hand when the grenade ignited several seconds later, smoldering and burning through the alumnisteel flooring of the air duct as powdered oxidized metal and shaved aluminum were ignited together at 800 degrees, causing a chemical reaction that would melt through almost any known substance. The alumnisteel quickly melted into slag as it burned its way through the air shaft. The acidic smoke made by the melting made Shepard cough harshly as the smoke burned her throat and lungs. _Shit, teaches me to do this in an enclosed area._ Shepard thought to herself as she waited for the grenade to finish burning, edging her way towards the hole she created. It was large enough for her to fit through, armor and all, and a quick look down into the hole showed her that the thermite had stopped with the iridium-reinforced steel plating of the floor. Incendiary burned out, she slipped through the hole and landed on her feet in the corridor of the _Ishimura_ somewhere of a different wing of the Hydroponics Lab. According to the schematic, walking forward should head her to the next maintenance corridor that would take her down to the next level. Hopefully.

There were still seven contacts on her Kuwashii Visor.

_Why aren't they coming after me?_ Shepard wondered, looking at her HUD with her Mark X Pistol in her hand. The contacts were thirty meters away… and staying put, somewhere in front of her and to her left, probably down another corridor or in a room. The most logical conclusion was that the Xenomorphs didn't know she was there, which didn't seem likely after she had detonated a thermite grenade. The only other possibility was that they were cut off from the Queen, unable to sniff out instructions. That meant that while Shepard was trapped in that section of the Hydroponics Lab with them, the bugs were simply drones. Did SHODAN realize what she had figured out back on Hadley's Hope, that the aliens were merely controlled extensions of the Queen? Probably. _If I could figure it out, then SHODAN can, too. It's like matching wits with a chessmaster._ Shepard thought glumly, her pistol in both hands as she began stalking down the corridor towards the seven contacts. It was better to put the bugs down before they realized that she was there, where she was, and before SHODAN could open a door and have the feral drones turn into intelligent warriors. She switched her pistol's mods to that of armor-piercing, incendiary effect as she tactically moved towards a corridor that branched off to her left, ignoring the one to the right for a moment. The Human Specter peered around the corner of the corridor, seeing that it only went about ten meters, and pied the corner, circling around the corner so that she could cover the hallway without being jumped from a close enemy. Clearing the hallway, she turned to clear the hallway behind her, and saw that it ended with a locked door. Shepard wasn't going trying to unlock it, knowing full well that SHODAN was the gatekeeper of the _Ishimura_. If she wanted off this level, she was going to have to find an alternate form of access, and the nearest one on the schematics was where the bugs were.

Decision made, the Specter went down the hall that would lead her towards the Xenomorphs.

_Shit, please don't let this be a trap._ Shepard thought to herself as she walked down the short hallway, her pistol aiming down its lengths as she walked as quickly and as quietly as she could, not wanting to set off the drone's natural instinct to attack any threat present. If she wanted to take on seven, she needed to have the advantage of surprise and first strike. The HUD showed her that contacts still hadn't moved, and as she pied the next corridor corner, she saw that the hallway branched in three directions; straight, left, and right. The dots on her HUD made it look like the bugs were somewhere forward and to her right, but it was hard to tell if it was a room in front of her, or off to the right side corridor.

Shit, this wasn't going according to plan.

_They've got to be in a room with no vent, thus no interface with the Queen._ Shepard guessed, switching out her pistol for her Specter Gear HMWAR Mark VII Assault Rifle, shouldering it stock quickly. _Go to them, or have them come to me?_ Both had advantages and disadvantages. Going to them would be springing their trap while as having them come to her would have the bugs entering her own trap. Besides, no one was shying she had to stay in that exact spot anyhow. Taking a grenade and switching it to proximity, she put it at abdomen level on one of the walls, hoping that the direction of the blast would do better an striking several as she backed up as far to the wall of the corridor as possible as she pulled out her Mark X Pistol in her left hand, keeping her Assault Rifle in her right as she switched her pistol's firing mode to standard round, five-shot burst.

Shepard fired.

The contacts on her HUD immediately began to scurry and move as Shepard turned right and ran down the corridor she had come from slipping her pistol back on her left thigh as she ran down the ten meter corridor, turning about to face whatever might come down towards her. Her Kuwashii Visor showed her the seven contacts streaming in a line towards a point and making what appeared to be a left turn; they must have been in a room, Shepard thought as the contacts moved to the twenty-five meter range and traveled perpendicular to her position, down a hallway that didn't head right towards hers. Another turn, and they were moving closer, right towards where she had placed the grenade…

**BOOM!**

Three contacts erased. Four more to go.

And then Shepard's HUD began to populate with contacts all over, as if her Visor had contracted the chicken pox.

"Shit!" The Specter swore, raising her rifle as the first of four remaining bugs appeared, and she quickly took it down, blasting out the back of its head with a single shot, aided by the Aiming Assistant Software in her Mark VII Assault Rifle and Kuwashii Visor. The next three guns went down just as quickly, their bodies crumpled in a heap with their heads shot through, acidic smoke rising from where their caustic blood hit the metallic grating of the floor. Shepard looked at her HUD's readout, seeing the counter of contacts reading forty-two in an one-hundred and eighty degree arc, clumped in several places with some individuals. Some were within fifteen meters of her position, while others were at the radars' maximum range of fifty meters.

Shit, she was practically surrounded as the contacts began to converge on Shepard.

The Specter wasted no time turning back down the corridor she had come down, leaving a proximity grenade on the ground as she ran down the corridor, passing the hole in the ceiling she had made earlier. The sound of screeching and the clattering of nails on metal began to catch up with her as Shepard turned around to face the intersection, seeing three bugs heading towards the grenade she left behind. Raising her rifle, Humanity's First Specter shot them down quickly as more began to come, a tide of bugs running down the corridor. The grenade went off, sending several to their demise as the rest simple poured over their dead in a head-long rush towards the only enemy present. Shepard continued to fire, bringing down the first ten before turning and running back down the corridor, heading towards the door that would lead her back to the Hydroponics Lab where her team was. She didn't like the thought of leading the enemy to them, but there were thirty-odd armed people who could shift the tide of battle as her HUD's enemy counter reached its limit of 99, more contacts heading towards her. _Shit, we've killed something like four hundred of them!_ Shepard thought as she ran another fifteen meters, turning around and firing ten times, killing ten more Xenomorphs, the counter never dropping once. _Are they not going to give up and realized they're outmatched? Or is the population estimate off? Did they have more than eleven hundred to start with_? She didn't have time to contemplate that thought as she retreated again, getting close to the door. The Marine Lieutenant knew that SHODAN would never open the door for her, so she was going to have to make her own entrance.

"_Brynhildr!_ Overcharge pistol, explosive shot, maximum force and power, single shot!" Shepard called out as she turned and fired at the bugs once more, flipping her rifle to full auto, sending fifty rounds quickly through the corridor where the teeming mass of Xenomorphs were bounding down the hallway on the floors, crawling on the ceilings and walls. She could see some of them popping out of the vents as well as she shot at the closest bugs twenty meters away, splattering their bodies with armor-piercing, incendiary rounds that would go through the first target, usually killing the one behind it, and possibly even the one after that. Her fifty rounds did dip the enemy counter on her HUD, a mass zone of white dots like a river flooding towards her, reaching eighty-four, but it shot right back up to ninety-nine in two seconds as Shepard turned towards the locked door thirty meters away, running towards it as she pulled out her Mark X Pistol and fired its shot.

It was a dangerous thing she was doing, an overcharged shot. A normal mass effect weapon fired a small shaved piece of metal through a generated mass effect field, sending it through a barrel with a electromagnetic current running through it for accuracy and velocity. Because of this, heat was generated with the process, due to endothermic properties, sent to the weapons' heat sink to keep the weapon operating a peak performance without causing damage to the internal components, to prevent rapid expansion of metal from the heat, to prevent cracking or warping of the internal components. In Specter School, Shepard learned that one could override the heat sink, to funnel all its potential energy into one devastating shot, at a significant chance that said weapon might be too damaged to operate again, even the possibility of it blowing up in the users' hands.

The shot hit the door, and blasted out a hole just big enough for the Specter to crawl through.

Shepard ran towards the door at a full sprint, barely pausing long enough to get her feet throw the hole in the middle of the closed door. It took her a couple of seconds to wedge her way through the opening, sliding through and finding herself in the main room of the Hydroponics lab, where she had been just an hour before. Wasting no time, she turned to the hole, seeing the Xenomorphs bounding towards the door as she stuck the muzzle of her Specter Gear Assault Rifle into the opening and began to fire indiscriminately through it, firing full auto down the corridor and into the teeming mass of bugs. Squeals of death and rage emanated from the other side of the door as hyperaccelerated pieces of shaved metal impacted against chitlineous alien flesh, the spray of acid and the thumping of bodies dropping to the deck accompanying their cries. Shepard fired her gun hot, filling her Mark VII's heat sink to full capacity as the bugs kept coming, sending Xenomorphs to their deaths as they continued to charge her. When her HMWAR's overheat alarm rang off, Shepard slapped the weapon on her chest one-handed, pulling the bolt cover back to expose the heat sink while drawing her HMWP with her left hand, sticking the pistol into the hole and pulled the trigger.

It clicked, and nothing happened.

"_Warning! Internal damage to weapon system prevents user from using equipment."_ Brynhildr's VI told her, immediately diagnosing the problem.

"SHIT!" Shepard cursed as she jammed the now-useless pistol on her left thigh, pulling out a grenade and chucking it through the hole she made in the door before turning and sprinting away from the breach she had created in the door. The grenade exploded a few seconds later as aliens reached the door, one already trying to clammer its way through as Humanity's First Specter turned about, pulling at her Specter Assault Rifle, and plugged the first bug in the hole with a single, armor-piercing shot with incendiary effect. The alien died, its body falling through the hole and into the main Hydroponic Lab's floor as another tried to get through, getting killed as well. Shepard killed the next four this way as she saw the door being beaten on, dents appearing in the metal as other places began to smolder, touched by high concentrated acid.

Shepard recalled all too easily how Naor the Bull died, and thought it a matter of time as a part of the door melted through and several bugs broke through.

She was methodical in her firing, keeping her round count down as she put single rounds into each bug that came, the HUD absolutely glowing with contacts in the hallway as the Human Marine kept firing her assault rifle, killing bugs as the came through the holes in the door. More were beginning to pour through than she could contain, and Shepard began to walk backwards as she fired, killing a bug every second, not fast enough to stop them from breaching the Hydroponics Lab.

_Shit, where is everyone!_ Shepard thought to herself as she took out another six bugs, only three of them at the door, the other three having broken free and bullrushed their way towards her. What was disconcerting was that some of the escapees were clambering up the walls, escaping the possibility of death by rifle as Shepard was forced to concentrate on the door, where the main force now. _They… they must have gotten out_. Shepard thought of her friends and team members, having left the Hydroponics Lab, probably in some maintenance shaft, working their way towards the _Betty._ _They'll survive, and you're buying them time_. Shepard continued to fire her rifle, pegging one of the climbing bugs, sending it falling to its death as she shot another that was lopping towards her on the ground. Two more followed it to bug hell as she shot another that was clambering on the wall, trying to flank her. The Human Specter continued to walk backwards in a futile attempt to put more distance between herself and the encroaching Xenomorphs as an even dozen ran straight towards her as several more pushed their way through the door, some hitting the ground running while others began climbing up and around the walls.

Shepard continued to back up as she put single rounds into the bugs, now getting as close to her as ten meters, most still bottlenecked at the blown out door forty meters away. The Assault Rifle continued to punch itself in her shoulder from the recoil every time she pulled the trigger, bringing a Xenomorph down with every shot she took. No longer was she concerned with precision firing, taking to much time to ensure a direct chest shot on the aliens as they made their way towards her. Now Shepard was merely firing in the general vicinity, scoring hits that were usually lethal, but sometimes only crippling or staggering, wounding the bugs and slowing them down as she continued to tactically move backwards while firing. No longer could she see her HUD's readout of the bugs beyond the door she had shot out, pushing their way through the holes made in the metal door. The readout only counted the ones through the door, spreading out to each side as most came at her like an arrow, some twenty-five coming right at her, as close as ten meters away. She no longer fired at the door, the distance of the aliens having her more concerned with her immediate survival as oppose to the next minute or so as she continued to put distance away from the door that lead to the Hydroponics Lab as a dozen bugs flanked to the left and to the right, too far of an arc for her to track and obtain them with the immediate threat in front of her.

Shepard knew she was going to die when her back hit against a wall.

The Human Specter continued to fire, switching to a three round burst, each pulling of the trigger slicing through chitlineous flesh, the triple barrage of rounds ensuring a greater chance of a kill as Shepard continued to kill as many of the bugs in front of her as she could, her Kuwashii Visor reporting back that more were still coming at her, more taking the wall route as well as the flanking attack came at her from either side, now within twenty-five meters. Even if she held back the runners, the ones from the sides would soon get to her. She briefly thought of Naor the Bull's demise, trying to kill too many bugs at once, unable to contain them all. Now the same thing was happening to her, and Shepard let off a scream of fury and defiance as she pushed off from the wall and moved forward towards the stream of bugs that ran towards her, pulling the trigger of her HMWAR as fast as she reasonably could while still bringing down her foes, moving towards the threat in an assault. It was suicide, of course; she knew she wasn't going to win. But if she were going to die, Shepard wasn't about to go out with her back against a wall with nowhere else to go. She was going to look death straight in its face and give it as good as she got. Bug after bug fell to her Mark VII as the weapon's overheat indicator reached 85%, only a few more burst until the weapon went useless from its overheated heat sink as Humanity's First Specter pulled the trigger again and again, bringing down a trio of bugs as they reached 5 meters from her. 3 meters from her. 1 meter from her…

…And stopped.

Shepard pointed her overheated rifle at the bug that stood in front of her, the alarm going off in her Visor's earpiece as the several bugs that were in front of her and the four that were behind her stopped in their tracks and looked off into one direction, to some wall that led towards the bow of the _Ishimura_. Seventy or so bugs populated the Hydroponics Lab main room as they all let off an ear-piercing shriek, looking to the wall… and began to retreat. Shepard's eyes widened as her weapon slowly cooled off through its fluted barrel, unable to force herself to lock back the heat sink's cover to expel the trapped internal heat quicker as Xenomorphs turned towards the ruined door she had shot through and made their way back towards the corridors she had just escaped, Humanity's First Specter forgotten as the HUD readout on her Kuwashii Visor's eyepiece read to her that all contacts were moving towards the corridor, the population count decreasing rapidly as the distance increased between herself and the aliens. Within a few short moments, Lieutenant Shepard found herself alone in the Hydroponics Lab without another soul, alien or otherwise. Her Mark VII rifle had finally cooled off on its own as Shepard looked upon the hole she had made in an attempt to escape the bugs, only to be overrun herself. Yet she was alive. She should be grateful.

There was only one reason why the Xenomorphs would pull back; Big Momma was in danger.

"Priority message, Royce, Stacy, Cavius, and Tela." Shepard cued up her red Omnitool, bringing up the message function and got ready the talk-to-text function. "Overran by bugs in Hydroponics, but bugs pulled back at last second. Queen is in danger. I repeat, Queen is in danger." Shepard paused for a moment, giving her chance to think. She hadn't been separated long enough from the group for them to make their way back to the Medical Wing to force the Queens' hand. If it wasn't her Specter Class and her remaining human platoon who had threatened the Queen, who was left?

Only one other group knew of the aliens on the _Ishimura_. Where they coming to see what happened to their prize? Or were they coming to collect?

"Continue message; continue to _Betty_." Shepard continued her message as she began to move toward the breached door, avoiding the acid-scarred floor in case it caved with her weight, the acidic blood of the Xenomorphs having already burned itself out. "Possible outside interference has made their way to Queen, possible extraction or capture possible. I'm going to prevent them from doing just that. End message and send." Shepard reached the broken, burned out door as she stepped through the very same hole she made earlier, squeezing her way through as she found the corridors empty of movement.

"Shit. Now how did they get back to Medical?" Shepard wondered to herself as she looked down the empty corridor.

* * *

Tracking the bugs proved easier than expected.

1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard ran down the maintenance corridor that the Xenomorphs had gone down, a different corridor than what Issac Clark and Jacob Temple had led the team of Specters and humans down. Shepard had figured out how to track the bugs by turning her Kuwashii Visor's view to pick up molecules of acidic residue in the air, picking up a trail of several bugs who were undoubtedly still bleeding from their earlier engagement. The Human Specter had been surprised to have found the corridor, an access hatch that she missed earlier, and certainly didn't look like the ones that Issac and Jacob had been. The corridor itself was a little small for a human, and she was having to run at a slight crouch, the corridor only about five feet tall for her 5' 7". It wasn't fun running like that, but it beat crawling.

_Priority message received, Captain Mason, R._ Her Omnitool chirped, bringing up the message on her Visor's eyepiece. _Most of crew of Betty, Ishimura, and Kellion split, trapped us in corridor. Still trying to get ourselves in main level of Cargo Hold. Betty probably taken. Still got Call, Wheels, and Clark. Don't get yourself hurt._

"Shit." Shepard swore, not surprised that the Sons of Anarchy split on them, but some of the crew from the _Ishimura_ and the _Kellion_ surprised her. Captain Hammond was a former Marine, and the Hydroponic Technician Larry Purvis didn't seem brave or bold enough to betray them. What she found herself more angry about was Doctor Terrence Kyne splitting. He had evidence of CEC's tampering with the Xenomorphs, and possibly even more. The next time she saw him, she would be seeing him in an IsoCube if she were in a good mood. But the loss of the possibility of getting out of the deathtrap that was the _Ishimura_… that stung. The worst part was that she really couldn't blame the escaping humans for their thought process. They had been holed up in the Medical Wing for over a week, and they got pulled out from a bad situation. Most people would probably take the selfish route. With the SOA, it didn't surprise her at all. What could you expect from ice pirates and bikers, anyhow? Yet Captain Zachary Hammond was a former Marine, he should have known better. Sergeant Vincent DiStephano seemed like the type, though. Shepard grumbled at the though as she continued through the corridor at a run, continuing her way towards the Medical Wing.

"_Sh-Sh-Shepard."_

Shit.

"Not now, you homicidal bitch." The Specter told SHODAN, refusing to be baited as she ran through the maintenance corridor, hearing the murderous AI's voice over the intercoms. "I'm a little fucking busy."

"_Your re-re-reinforcements have (have) ariveeeeeeed."_

"Reinforcements?" That had Shepard stopping in her tracks. Reinforcements didn't sound good. "Not that I like having conversations with you, you silicon fuck, but _what_ reinforcements?"

"_Two-two-two ships have docked (ocked) with the IshiMURA."_ The AI informed her, and Shepard considered if SHODAN was lying to her. "_One vessel (essel) is a human-man vessel carrying six solDIERs. The o-o-other is a vessel of unknown make (make) and origin, and is-is not reg-gestered. It has sevvvvvveral occupants of varying species." _Specters, Shepard wondered, wondering if Captain Belltamus of the CDF _Spirit of Vengeance_ had called for help. Shepard immediately tossed that idea out; Executor Kryus Contenus had told her they were short on Specters, and several sounded like it was more than the Office of Special Tactics could afford. Yet who else would get a group of several species working together?

_Oh. Oh shit. _Unregistered vessel, unknown make and origin? Shepard had a likely culprit.

The Shadow Broker had arrived.

* * *

A/N: Thermite - 75% rusted metal, 25% shaved aluminum, and a flare will make you a chemical reaction that will melt through iron, steel, concrete, rock, and just about anything else, practically unstoppable. While not an aficionado of the _Anarchists' Cookbook_, thermite will slag just about anything. WARNING: While not flammable, once it gets going, it will consume anything it touches, and neither water nor the lack of oxygen will quench it until it has burned away its fill of rust and aluminum… including flesh. In the military, we use a low-grade version of it, called 'incendiary' to melt weapons and caches.


End file.
